Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has batted for the inclusion of Shubman Gill in India’s playing XI for the fourth ODI against New Zealand at Hamilton on Thursday.
Gavaskar believes Gill should be considered for the No. 3 spot which has been vacated after BCCI’s decision to rest captain Virat Kohli from last ODIs and the following three-match T20I series.
"Well because the No.3 spot is vacant, I would want to give Shubman Gill a game,” Gavaskar told India Today.
Gill earned his maiden India call-up as a replacement of KL Rahul who along with Hardik Pandya were provisionally suspended for unwanted comments on a TV show. While Pandya got his position back after BCCI allowed the cricketers to play till further inquiry, Rahul was not as lucky and he instead was included in the India A side against England Lions.
Gavaskar stated that the importance of giving the youngsters an opportunity to showcase their talent at the highest level. “Give him a couple of games and see how he fares. If he gets to bat, you will get a fair idea how he is taking to international cricket," Gavaskar added.
Gill has had a breakthrough season for Punjab, despite them not making it to the quarterfinals of Ranji Trophy. He scored 790 runs in ten innings at an average of 98.75, including two hundreds and five half-centuries. Prior to the Ranji campaign, Gill was also part of the India A squad that toured New Zealand.
The 19-year-old is also one of the fastest to reach 1000 first-class runs in Indian cricket. He achieved the landmark in Punjab’s last Group B game against Bengal, taking only 15 innings to do so. This came after Gill had already broken the record of fastest 1000 runs in youth ODIs last year.
India, having already won the series, would look to achieve their first-ever clean sweep on New Zealand soil.
India ODI squad for 4th and 5th ODI vs New Zealand: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Vijay Shankar, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya