Former England skipper Michael Vaughan feels the Indian team needs to bring in KL Rahul in place of young Shubman Gill in the World Championship Final against Australia in the Oval and feels it is important to play their best team against Australia in England conditions.
KL Rahul has been dealing with injuries for most of 2022 and struggling to find form in 2023. Rahul failed to impress in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Karnataka batter has not only lost his spot for the playing 11 but also lost the vice-captaincy in Tests and ODIs owing to his poor form in BGT 2023, with Hardik Pandya replacing him as ODI deputy to Rohit Sharma.
With India announcing the squad for the WTC final, the talk around the playing 11 has emerged with former England Cricketer Vaughan’s backs KL Rahul to play ahead of young Indian star Shubman Gill in the swinging England condition. Speaking on Cricbuzz,
“The only change that they could make in English conditions, is that KL Rahul plays the moving ball better than Shubman Gill. Shubman’s a tremendous young player, but you’ve got to win that one game of cricket. Forget history, it’s about picking the best XI to win the World Test Championship,” Michael Vaughan said.
KL Rahul’s overall record in Tests is not good either. He averages a modest 33.44 in 47 Tests and has managed to score only 7 centuries so far. With the highest score of 23 in his last 10 test innings, Rahul’s last Test century came in December 2021 against South Africa. KL Rahul performed very well in England as he scored a century in Lord’s against England.
On the Other hand, Gill registered his maiden International test century against Australia on Indian soil. The 23-year-old already has a century in all three formats in 2023. The right-handed batsman smashed 208 in a one-day international against New Zealand in January and his unbeaten 126 against the same opposition last month is the highest T20 score by an Indian batsman.
Shubman Gill Snicks Off Quite Consistently – Michael Vaughan
Michael Vaughan said that young Shubman Gill has a few technical deficiencies in his game and he cannot be at his best when the ball moves a bit in the air, as he quite often snicks the ball in the swinging conditions.
“When it’s straight, Shubman is a dangerous player but I’ve seen a few little technical deficiencies. When the ball moves, he takes his hand a little bit too much towards the ball. He snicks off quite consistently.
The England cricketer said that it is important to pick the playing 11 based on the conditions, rather than holding to past and future series, as it will be one an important game for India in red-ball cricket in 2023.
“I’m not sure they will do that (replacing Shubman with KL Rahul) because I’m not in the selection room. But don’t pick a team on what’s next, or who’s going to play in the West Indies… you’ve got to pick (the team for) that one game of cricket,” Michael Vaughan added.
India will take on Australia in the 2023 WTC Final at Kensington Oval on June 7, 2023, with a reserve day on June 12. Team India lost the inaugural edition of the WTC Final in 2021 against New Zealand at Southampton.