By Shamik Chakrabarty in Guwahati
India’s training session on the match eve, they call it matchday-minus-one these days, was scheduled from 9 am. The team bus arrived at the stadium about 10 minutes before 10am. It was an optional practice session and only three players turned up. KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan went through their paces for the next couple of hours, in all likelihood the team’s top three for the second Test here in Guwahati starting on Saturday.
At 12.21 pm, the BCCI media advisory confirming Shubman Gill’s unavailability for the Test landed in the inbox. RevSportz broke the story three days ago that Gill was ruled out of the Guwahati Test, with Rishabh Pant taking charge as stand-in captain. The press release stated: “Unfortunately, he (Gill) was not fully fit to feature in the 2nd Test and will head to Mumbai for further assessment of his injury. Rishabh Pant will lead the team in the 2nd Test in Gill’s absence.”
This website put out a video in the morning that India’s regular Test captain would be on his way to Mumbai where he would consult Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala. It is learnt he is touch and go for the one-dayers that would follow the ongoing Test series.
Why Gill travelled to Guwahati would be a fair question to ask. Trolling the player and/or the BCCI for this would be unfair. Better to take note of what Pant said at the pre-match press conference. “He (Gill) is doing fine, he is getting better,” said the stand-in skipper. “He was keen on playing this Test match but his body didn’t allow it. From a captaincy point of view, when you see his resilience that even when your body is not supporting, but you want to push it for your team… That’s the kind of mindset we want to inculcate and he did it from the front.”
The dressing room knows Gill is a fighter, that’s what matters. But his absence has created a Gill-sized void in the batting line-up. Sai is the obvious replacement and is expected to bat at No. 3. Putting Washington Sundar in that position in the first Test was a makeshift arrangement, as the hosts wanted to have an extra spin-bowling all-rounder, Axar Patel, in their playing XI. The Kolkata Test was an aberration for Washington in terms of batting position. In 15 of his 16 Tests so far, the southpaw has batted down the order.
Sai and Washington, the two Tamil Nadu teammates, at No. 3 and No. 4 respectively could be an option. But in that case, four of India’s top five batsmen would be left-handers. “We have taken that into consideration, a lot of left-handers in our batting line-up,” Pant said at the presser.
This takes us to Nitish Kumar Reddy and his chances of replacing Axar Patel in the XI. In any case, four spinners on this ACA Stadium pitch would be one too many. In Gill’s absence, the team management is likely to make do with Dhruv Jurel at No. 4 here, à la the second innings at Eden Gardens.
As regards South Africa, Kagiso Rabada is ruled out and Lungi Ngidi has joined the squad. He is likely to replace Corbin Bosch in the XI. “He (Ngidi) can do what he can do with the new ball,” Temba Bavuma, the South Africa captain, said at the press conference. “If there is a bit of assistance with the new ball, especially with the early morning conditions, he definitely comes into play. Like I said, we would like to make that decision early in the morning, but with any player that comes into the squad, he comes in with the backing of everyone.”
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