The Aussies are here in India to avenge the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as the 4-match Test series begins Thursday in Nagpur. While Rohit Sharma & Co have started training for the series opener at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium, the Pat Cummins-led Australia have set their camp in the outskirts of Bangalore and opted not to play any tour games. All eyes will be on the defending champions as they need to win the series by a 3-1 margin to secure a berth in the World Test Championship (WTC) finale.
While the team gears up for its first Test at home this year, the management is likely to face a selection conundrum ahead of the Nagpur encounter. Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has suggested that the hosts must go with the pair of Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma as openers. Speaking in his latest YouTube video, Harbhajan explained why the team should prefer Gill ahead of KL Rahul as Rohit’s partner.
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“The opening partnership is the most important thing. Openers set the tone in any series. According to me, India’s openers in the Australia series should be Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. The form he is in, Gill is on another level. Even though KL Rahul is a top player, his stats (across all formats in 2022) are not favouring him at the moment. Whereas Gill is in the form of his life. He has shattered multiple records in recent months,” Harbhajan said.
“If Team India wants to win this Test series, then Shubman Gill should open with Rohit Sharma,” Harbhajan added.
The former India off-spinner, who rose to fame with a hat-trick against Steve Waugh’s Australia in the 2001 Kolkata Test, further mentioned that if India wishes to win the Test series then they must have Gill as the second opener in all four games.
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“After scoring so many runs, I think he deserves to be in the Indian playing XI not for just one game. I think India should stick with Shubman Gill throughout the series. If he plays in the form and confidence that he is in, Gill will score plenty of runs for India. So I hope he gets to play,” Harbhajan added.
Shubman has been in tremendous form lately. He made his Test debut against Australia in 2020 and was a part of India’s victorious campaign Down Under. So far, The 23-year-old has amassed 736 runs with an average of 32.0 in the longest format of the game.
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