Shubman Gill May Miss Entire 5 Match Test Series Against England
It is still not clear whether Shubman Gill’s condition warrants surgery ahead of the series starting August 4.
“There is a chance that Shubman could be ruled out of the whole Test tour even though it is still a month away. The injury is serious is what we have come to know,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
The Punjab batsman is believed to have either sustained a calf muscle injury or a hamstring tear which could take considerable time to heal and also it is not yet clear how and when he picked up the injury. As of now, he is supposed to be in England where physio Nitin Patel and strength and conditioning coach Sohum Desai will monitor his progress.
Since it’s a five-Test series, there could be a slim outside chance that he might make a comeback in the final Test of the series. Shubman Gill, one of the heroes of the Australia tour earlier this year, has not been in great form recently having failed to score a fifty in four successive Test matches and was troubled by the seam and swing against New Zealand pacers in the inaugural World Test Championship final. Shubman Gill scored 36 across the two innings in the final which India lost.
Although Shubman Gill, who had a successful debut in Australia, started the England home Test series with a 50 as well, it has all gone downhill for him since then. Although he has scored 414 runs in 8 Tests averaging 31.85 in his Test career, his last few innings score read: 0, 14, 11, 15*, 0, 28, and 8.
In three Tests in Australia, Shubman Gill scored 259 runs at a brilliant average of 51.80 with two half-centuries besides his name. His brilliant innings of 91 were instrumental in Team India ending Australia’s 32-year unbeaten streak at the Gabba, Brisbane.
Shubman Gill’s Injury May See Abhimanyu Easwaran In Main Squad
Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul are the other two openers in the 20 man squad and if Shubman Gill is ruled out from the first few Tests, Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, who is yet to debut in Tests is the likely replacement from the standby list.
Abhimanyu Easwaran’s rise to the Indian squad is the culmination of years of hard work he’s put together playing First-Class cricket for Bengal. Similarly, Abhimanyu Easwaran has put up a string of equally stellar performances for India A. He has managed 4401 runs averaging 43.57 in 64 first-class appearances and 2875 runs in 62 List A games averaging 48.72 besides scoring 471 runs in 19 T20s averaging 33.64. He has 13 first-class, 6 List A, and 1 T20 ton.