India bowling coach Morne Morkel has given a big update about injured star batter Shubman Gill. Amid suspense over Gill’s participation in the first Test of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy, at Perth, Morkel has expressed hope of the right-handed batter making it to the playing XI by the last minute.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Morkel said “Shubman is improving every day. He picked up a nasty blow in that squad game. With him it’s going to be a day-to-day sort of process.”
“Fingers crossed for that improvement. They’ll wait to make a call with him up until the morning of the Test match,” he added.
Gill’s importance in Australia
Gill is a key batter in the India cricket team. In the previous tour of Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21, he played a major role in India’s 2-1 series triumph. He scored 259 runs in three matches at an average of 51.80.
Meanwhile, India captain Rohit Sharma will miss the opening match after the recent birth of his son. In Rohit’s absence, the captaincy job will be handled by pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
It is being speculated that KL Rahul will open the batting alongside Yashashvi Jaiswal in Rohit’s absence. Moreover, it is being reported that Devdutt Padikkal will take the No. 3 spot in the batting line-up if Gill is unfit to play.
India are the defending champions of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as the visitors have been the winners in four previous editions. The chances of India’s success will rely heavily on senior players like Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Rohit. Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Siraj also have rich experience as they were part of previous tour in 2020-21.
The upcoming series holds tremendous importance for both India and Australia as the overall result would influence their chances of qualification to the final of ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-2025. In the standings for WTC, Australia are currently at the top while India occupy the second spot.
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