Gagan Khoda has said that Shubman Gill should bat in the middle-order as he is more like VVS Laxman. Gagan Khoda also suggested that India should have opted to open with Mayank Agarwal in the WTC final.
Former India selector Gagan Khoda has stated that Shubman Gill is not an opener and should bat in the middle-order as he more like VVS Laxman.
Gagan Khoda: Shubman Gill Isn’t An Opener And Should Bat In The Middle Order And Added That India Should Have Picked Mayank Agarwal Instead As An Opener
The statement from the former India cricketer comes after India lost the World Test Championship (WTC) final by 8 wickets versus New Zealand on Wednesday. Shubman Gill scored 36 runs (28 and 8) in the historic match. Gagan Khoda further added that Mayank Agarwal should have opened for India at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.
“It was not meant to be like this. Shubman Gill isn’t an opener. He is like VVS Laxman, he should bat in the middle-order. India should have picked Mayank Agarwal, who had only two bad Test matches. Even Prithvi Shaw was shown the door after just one failure in Australia,” Khoda told Sportskeeda.
Mayank Agarwal was fourth on the list of Indian batters to score the most runs in the WTC league phase. He stacked up 857 runs from 12 matches at an average of 42.85. The numbers are a stark contrast to Shubman Gill – 414 runs from eight matches at an average of 31.84.
Mayank Agarwal racked up 260 runs from seven games in the postponed IPL 2021 and also stood in for KL Rahul as captain for PBKS’ last match against the Delhi Capitals before the tournament came to a halt. He averaged a healthy 43.33 as against KKR’s Shubman Gill who managed only 132 runs averaging a pathetic 18.85 in 7 games.
Gagan Khoda: India Could Have Taken An Extra Batsman Or A Pacer Who Can Bat
Gagan Khoda also reckoned that Ravindra Jadeja was under-bowled and a specialist batsman or a pace-bowling all-rounder could have played ahead of him for a better balance in the playing XI.
“India could have taken an extra batsman or a fast bowler who can bat. Someone like Shardul Thakur could have done the trick,” Khoda said.
However, after the conclusion of the match India captain Virat Kohli had said that the lack of a fast-bowling all-rounder meant India went in with their most experienced XI.
“You need to have a fast-bowling all-rounder for that. We’ve been successful with this combination in different conditions. We thought this was our best combination, and we had batting depth as well, and if there was more game time, the spinners would have come into the game more as well,” Kohli had said.
The two-Test old Shardul Thakur was mighty impressive in the only longest format game he played in the away series against Australia this year, picking up seven wickets and scoring a half-century in Brisbane. But he was not even included in the final 15 for the match against the Kiwis.