While a lot has been spoken about Shubman Gill’s shin injury, now it has been revealed in a report in Times of India, that the opener will be sent back home. The report also suggests that Gill wasn’t injured during a practice session, but the injury is a result of off the field training. Also what has become clear is that he will be out of action for six to eight weeks.
This has also given rise to a debate, as to who should open in England with Rohit Sharma. India has a few options in Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and KL Rahul. Easwaran has been excellent in the domestic circuit in the last couple of years, while Mayank and Rahul have been out of form in the longest format.
If the latest reports are to be believed, Team India want in-form opener Prithvi Shaw, who is in Sri Lanka currently for the limited-overs series for the Tests in England, and the team has already submitted a formal request to the BCCI for the same. Shaw, after an unsuccessful tour to New Zealand and Australia, was shown the door. But the youngster displayed great form in the domestic circuit and IPL.
In Vijay Hazare Trophy he scored over 800 runs, surpassing the records of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. “Here’s a batsman in absolute form right now, playing an insignificant series (in Sri Lanka) while he can be in England and the team will have a cushion to fall back on. It’s been five days now and the selectors haven’t even blinked yet,” say sources following the developments.
The selectors are also worried about the prospect of one of the other openers getting injured. “What do they do then? Just fall back on Easwaran in a series as important as this one?” add resources.
“As opposed to having to fall back on a batsman (Easwaran) who last played his part on the First Class circuit more than two seasons ago and haven’t seen much lately, wouldn’t it be wiser to have a batsman (Prithvi) who is in form and the elements of his battle are already well documented? The team knows Prithvi, understands Prithvi. If they think he should be in England then there is no reason why the BCCI should not send him.”
All said and done, the BCCI will have to make a quick call over Shaw, and name the replacement for Sri Lanka series maybe. Shaw, if being sent to England, won’t have much time to prepare though, due to the strict quarantine laws.
