In the absence of India captain Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill made the most of the opportunity given to him, scoring a century in the second innings to put India in cruise control in the first Test against Bangladesh. However, with Rohit likely to return to the team in the second Test, questions about the player he would replace have already triggered a debate among fans. Shubman had opened with stand-in skipper KL Rahul in the match but would he be sacrificed despite scoring a ton because of Rohit’s return?
Wasim Jaffer, in a discussion on ESPNCricinfo, weighed in on the dilemma. Though the obvious choice is between Rahul and Gill, Jaffer is of the opinion that a bowler would make way for the returning Rohit.
“It’s an old saying that when the batters don’t perform, the bowlers get dropped. So, I am guessing one bowler less and one batsman added in. We’ll see that one spinner might be less and Rohit Sharma might make way for one of the bowlers,” he said.
With Rahul being the designated vice-captain of the team and Gill scoring a ton, benching either of the two is a difficult task for the team management.
Considering how well India have bowled against Bangladesh in the first Test, bundling them out for just 150 in the first innings of the match, playing a bowler short might be a more feasible option.
With the bat, India saw both Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara score a century each in the second innings. Earlier in the first innings, Pujara had registered a knock of 90 runs while Shreyas Iyer had accumulated 86 runs.
Ravichandran Ashwin, surprisingly, hasn’t picked a single wicket in the match so far while Axar Patel hasn’t been able to leave a big mark either. If the team management decides to swap Rohit with a bowler, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Axar is the one who makes way.
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