'Today was Gill's chance to back Karun, who was down but...': Ex-RCB star slams Shubman for benching Nair in Manchester Test

Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif slammed Shubman Gill for benching veteran Karun Nair in the fourth Test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 at Emirates Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Nair was excluded from India's playing XI after he failed to perform in the first three Tests of the five-Test match series against England. Kair has scored 131 runs with a high score of 40 in the third Test at Lord's in London. India have included Gill's Gujarat Titans (GT) teammate Sai Sudharsan in place of Nair in the 4th Test.

Apart from Karun Nair, the Men in Blue featured two more changes as Anshul Kamboj made his Test debut and featured in place of injured Akash Deep, and Shardul Thakur was again included in the playing XI after missing a spot in the last two Tests.

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Kaif took his 'X', formerly known as Twitter, to question Shubman Gill's decision to drop the veteran batter despite his poor outing against England.

"Today was Shubman Gill's chance to back Karun who was down but deserved one more chance. He should have picked Karun Nair. Chance missed to earn the respect when it comes to making tough decisions as a leader" posted Kaif.

Coming back to the fourth Test, After being asked to bat, India off to a good start as openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 78/0, with KL (40*) and Jaiswal (36*) unbeaten at Lunch. England are leading the five-match series 2-1, having won the first and the third Test. India won the second Test by 336 runs.

India vs England playing XIs

India playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Anshul Kamboj.

England playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Liam Dawson, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer.