Former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer feels sad about Shubman Gill’s future in the ODI format right after Ishan Kishan strengthened his position in India’s ODI Squad.
Wasim Jaffer on Shubman Gill
Ishan Kishan stages a record-breaking double-century in the 3rd ODI game against Bangladesh on December 10, 2022. Opening the inning, Kishan scored aggressive 210 runs off just 131 balls which includes 24 boundaries and 10 sixes.
In the absence of Rohit Sharma who was ruled out of the last ODI owing to a hand injury, Ishan Kishan opened for India along with Shikhar Dhawan. With Kishan’s unbelievable double-century and Kohli’s record-breaking 72nd century, India scored 409 runs and won the match by 227 runs.
Both players received tons of praise from cricket experts and former cricket players for scripting various records on the same match.
“Ishan Kishan obviously puts himself ahead of Shubman Gill now. I feel a little bit sad for Gill, he was the frontrunner before this innings. He was the third opener in the line after Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan and now he will be in the fourth spot. Sometimes you will feel why Gill is not in the squad, there is nothing wrong that he did,” said Jaffer.
Jaffer remains of the opinion that Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma will be India’s preferred opening pairing in ODIs, although he did admit that a call needs to be taken about the southpaw who hasn’t been in the best of the form of late.
“He did really well in New Zealand and with whatever other opportunities he got. But we have seen in the recent past that a few players miss out and get dropped and this is now going to put them in another dilemma.
Who is their third and fourth openers and what to do with Shikhar Dhawan? He is the senior opener and he has had a bad series. They would like to back him due to the kind of record he has. That No.3 and No.4 options for openers will be a question mark,” he asserted.
Shubman Gill so far played 15 ODIs and scored 687 runs at an average of 57.25 while Kishan played 10 ODIs and scored 477 at an average of 53.
