When Shubman Gill was leaving from Mohali to be a part of India’s limited overs squads in New Zealand, he was pretty much sure he won’t get a game. He was after all flown in as a replacement of KL Rahul, who himself wasn’t sure of a spot in India’s batting line-up. The opportunity to share the dressing room with Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit was more than enough for the 19-year-old. But BCCI’s decision not to name a replacement for captain Kohli, who was rested from the last two ODIs and the entire T20I series as part of the board’s workload management before the ODI World Cup has suddenly brought Gill into contention.
India’s ever sorted No. 3 spot is vacant - albeit temporarily - for the upcoming two ODIs in New Zealand. With the team management keen on building Ambati Rayudu as a specialist No. 4 for the World Cup, Gill becomes an automatic choice to look after Virat Kohli’s throne, at least as a batsman. The real mantle of captaincy has obviously been passed on to Rohit Sharma.
Apart from the combination factor, Gill’s familiarity with the conditions is certain to aid his cause. Exactly a year ago, Gill scored an unbeaten 102 against Pakistan in the U-19 World Cup semi-final at Hamilton, which is also the venue for the fourth ODI, to pave way for India’s smooth sail to final. Gill had also emerged as the highest run-getter of the tournament. If that was not enough, the right-hander returned to New Zealand at the start of this year as part of India A’s squad and scored 124 runs in 3 innings when rest of the batters struggled to cope with the movement on offer.
The 19-year-old boy from Mohali has already made sure his third trip to New Zealand and arguably the most important one of his career so far does not go abegging. Despite not being in contention for a spot in the playing XI for the first part of the series, Gill constantly made waves in the nets. His free-flowing strokeplay even caught the eye of the Indian captain, who was so impressed that he went on to say he was not even 10% of Gill at 19.
“Someday someone has to take your place and that’s how it goes. Shubman is a very exciting talent and I saw him bat in the nets and I was like wow I was not even ten per cent of that when I was 19,” Kohli had said before leaving New Zealand.
However, going by India’s stand-in captain Rohit Sharma’s keenness to hold on to the winning combination, India might just ask Rayudu to bat at No.3. Considering the fact, Dhoni’s hamstring injury was not a major one, he is certain to take the gloves, leaving India with a difficult choice to make between Karthik and Gill. The former, being the frontrunner to be India’s back-up keeper for the World Cup in England, has a good chance of retaining his position in the side after his confident innings couple of nights ago at the Bay Oval.