Home
Ex-Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer said that he feels sad for Shubman Gill as the 23-year-old may not make the cut for Team India after Ishan Kishan's double hundred in the third ODI of the recently concluded limited-overs series against Bangladesh. Kishan played in the absence of injured skipper Rohit Sharma and made his case with a splendid knock in Chattogram.
Meanwhile, Gill has been in good nick while opening for India as well as his domestic team.
During an interview with a leading English daily, Jaffer said that Kishan has positioned himself ahead of Gill in the pecking order and he feels sad for the latter. The 44-year-old added that this will be a dilemma for the selectors considering Shikhar Dhawan's poor form.
“Ishan Kishan obviously puts himself ahead of Shubman Gill now. I feel a little bit sad for Gill, he was the frontrunner before this innings. He was the third opener in the line after Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan and now he will be in the fourth spot. Sometimes you will feel why Gill is not in the squad, there is nothing wrong that he did.”
“He did really well in New Zealand and with whatever other opportunities he got. But we have seen in the recent past that a few players miss out and get dropped and this is now going to put them in another dilemma. Who are their third and fourth openers and what to do with Shikhar Dhawan? He is the senior opener, and he has had a bad series. They would like to back him due to the kind of record he has. That No.3 and No.4 options for openers will be a question mark,” said Jaffer.
Jaffer is also a fan of the new hostile approach adopted by the new generation of Indian batters, calling the ideology 'refreshing'. “We have seen that with the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill as well. Once they feel they are in, they just go after the bowling irrespective of the format which is very refreshing when it comes off. In 50-over cricket you debate when you get out after in the 25th or 30th over that there were still plenty of overs left to play.
"Here as well, even though they scored 400-plus, Washington and Shardul were batting for those last few overs. But this new breed of batters, they go after the bowling irrespective of the format and it is a good thing to see. When it comes off it puts a lot of pressure on the bowlers and puts runs on the board,” the former opener added.
