Former England spinner Monty Panesar believes that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's absence will haunt India in the upcoming five-Test match series, which is scheduled to start from June 20. Shubman Gill-led India are currently preparing for the upcoming red-ball series against England. India veteran stars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are not the part of the squad as the duo announced their Test retirement in May ahead of the Test series.
After Rohit's retirement, BCCI announced Gill has his replacement to lead the Men in Blue in the longest format of the game. The upcoming Test series will be his first assignment as a captain. Panesar feels that Rohit and Virat's absence will surely benefit England. The former spinner claimed that the inexperienced Indian batting will collapse due to their absence.
"England will benefit from the fact that Virat and Rohit are not playing. Their experience could have been used for India. But they (Team India) are inexperienced. What happens with inexperience?... How will India play against England? We know how England can play. It's possible that India will collapse,” Monty Panesar said as quoted by ANI.
Panesar furthermore backed the newly appointed captain, Shubman Gill, to do well as a captain and bat with a lot of responsibility.
“I think Shubman Gill will be a good captain. He will bat well with responsibility. I think he will bat well with responsibility,” Panesar added.
Gill has played 32 Test matches so far, where he scored 1893 runs at an average of 35.05 with five hundreds and seven fifties to his name. However, he doesn't have a great record away from India, having scored just 88 runs from three Tests played in England with a highest score of 28.
India squad for England series
Shubman Gill(C), Rishabh Pant(vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Parishdh Krishna, Akashdeep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav