Sunil Gavaskar, legendary former Indian skipper gave definite answers to the two persistent questions of openers and preferred wicketkeeper arising ahead of 1st test at Adelaide.
Sunil Gavaskar named Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal as India’s openers and preferred Rishabh Pant over Wriddhiman Saha as India’s keeper for the first day-night Test in Adelaide on Thursday.
Sunil Gavaskar: Rishabh Pant Would Be Choice Of Team Management
The former Indian opener feels the Indian team management should pick an aggressive Rishabh Pant who scored a ton against Australia A over a technically sound Wriddhiman Saha.
Rishabh Pant’s quickfire entertaining 73-ball 103-run knock in the second innings of second warm-up practice game which also took place under lights should be enough for him to seal the wicketkeeper-batsman’s spot, feels the former Indian opener.
“It is going to be a tough one for the tour selection committee because Rishabh played in all the 4 Test matches four years ago. He also got a hundred and seemed he got under the skin of the Australian players with his chirping behind the stumps.”
“…when you just came off a hundred few days earlier, he would be the choice of the management I think,” Gavaskar said.
Sunil Gavaskar said he preferred aggressive batsman Rishabh Pant over a more-accomplished keeper in Wriddhiman Saha, as Australian pitches are not so demanding when it comes to keeping wickets.
“When you are playing on pitches where the wicketkeeper has to stand upto the stumps, where the ball turns out a little bit that’s when you tend to take your best wicketkeeper, in which case Wriddhiman Saha would be the obvious choice,” he explained.
“But here, India will having pacers where you can stand behind and have little more time, my feeling is that they will go for Rishabh,” Gavaskar said while previewing the series named after him and Allan Border to be telecast live by Sony Networks.
Sunil Gavaskar Preferred Shubman Gill Over Prithvi Shaw As 2nd Opener
Sunil Gavaskar meanwhile, batted for Shubman Gill over Prithvi Shaw to open alongside Mayank Agarwal in the series. He feels Mayank Agarwal is a certainty as his batting average is 57.29 in 11 tests and he is more experienced than both Shubman Gill who is yet to debut in tests and Prithvi Shaw who has played only 4 tests.
“…India is a little bit shaky at the top of the order. They don’t know who they are going to go with. Mayank Agarwal is of course a certainty. But who’s the other opener — Shubman Gill or Prithvi Shaw?” said Gavaskar.
“So with uncertainty at the top, they would like to strengthen their batting and so Rishabh Pant will play. I am hoping he (Rishabh) plays at 6 because then that will allow you to pick 5 bowlers to try and get 20 Australian wickets,” he added.
Shubman Gill scored 43 and 65 in the two innings in 2nd practice match while Prithvi Shaw scored 40 and 3 in the two innings. Both of them failed to open their account in the first innings of a first practice match.