When the Indian team lost the World Test Championship Final 2023 against Australia, the team management made it very clear that they were going to make some personnel changes in the team. Since the game was mostly tainted by India’s batting collapse in both innings, it was India’s ‘Mr. Dependable’ Cheteshwar Pujara who received the fury of the selectors for underperforming in the finale. Pujara scored 14 and 27 in the two innings of the WTC final and was thus dropped from the squad for the West Indies tour.
Cheteshwar Pujara: The End of an Era
However, it wasn’t just the WTC finale that led to Pujara being dropped from the squad. In the last 4 years (2020-2023), there has been a depletion in Pujara’s form. Pujara, who once peaked at 1140 runs in 11 matches in 2017 was only able to manage 1455 runs in 28 matches in the last 4 years at an average of just above 27. It wasn’t just his poor run that played a part in him being sacked from the team but also his age. Pujara is currently 35 years of age and by the time The WTC 2023-25 cycle comes to an end, he’ll be 37-38 years old.
Thus, the Indian selectors not only wanted someone who could score big runs for the team, but they also wanted to fuel the batting lineup with some rejuvenated energy. Hence, for the West Indies tour, two fresh faces Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal were named in the Test squad. The two openers were rewarded for their stellar performances in the IPL 2023 as well as the domestic circuit over the last few years.
If not Pujara, then who?
However, the Indian team already had two designated openers in the form of skipper Rohit Sharma and the talented Shubman Gill. Now, a fresh problem lies ahead of the team management, i.e., “Who will bat at 3 for the Indian team?”
Ahead of the start of the series, Shubman Gill expressed his desire to move to the number 3 position to make way for a left-right combination at the top. This meant that alongside the Indian captain Rohit Sharma, the young, talented left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal will face the new ball. Even when Rohit announced the squad for the first test at the time of the toss, he made it very clear that Gill will replace Pujara as India’s new ‘Number 3’.
Shubman Gill to step up
The Number 3 position is not unfamiliar to Shubman Gill. During his early cricketing days, Gill used to play at Number 3 for all of his teams. Even during the 2017-18 Under-19 World Cup, the right-handed batter batted one-down for the Indian team where he emerged as the highest run scorer with 372 runs in 6 games at an average of 124.
However, when KKR promoted him to an opener in 2021, the 23-year-old impressed everyone by scoring 478 runs. Gill, who had initially debuted for India as a Number 3, was soon promoted to the opening position. Ever since then, he hasn’t looked back and has kept on piling runs after runs for the Indian team.
Now that Gill has expressed his desire to bat at 3 again, it has eased up the Indian team management quite a bit. Gill is a dependable player and the team management knows that they can count on him. As the Indian team rediscovers itself to decide its course for the future, all eyes will be on Shubman Gill during the West Indies tour as to how he takes up the new challenge. Will he be able to replicate the same performances as he did while opening? Well, guess we’ll just have to wait and watch!
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