Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri has suggested the Men in Blue to open the batting with Shubman Gill in case Rohit Sharma doesn’t make it to the playing XI for the first Test against Australia starting at Perth on November 22. Accordingly, he isn’t in the favour of giving a chance to either Abhimanyu Easwaran or KL Rahul, instead choosing to bank on Gill’s previous success at the top of the order Down Under. “That's a tough one and selectors have a choice,” Shastri said.
“You can push Shubman (Gill) back up the order and he has opened in the past in Australia. Otherwise, you'll have to then make an alternative. Easwaran hasn't done that well (for India A in Australia).
But it's how he's batting in the nets, how Rahul is batting in the nets. But that Shubman Gill option is also there,” he added. Further, Shastri believes that a solitary spinner will be sufficient for the track at Perth, giving preference to the all-round skills of Ravindra Jadeja over Ravichandran Ashwin and Washington Sundar.
He said that he was at Perth when Australia played Pakistan there last year and having more than one spinner in the XI in those conditions is a luxury that the Indian team can choose to do away with. "I think the three I would pick straight away is Aakash Deep, (Mohammed) Siraj and Bumrah and then they (selectors) have to see the balance,” Shastri began. “Do they want two spinners? Do they want to risk going in with two spinners or do they want to take Nitesh Reddy? Nit.
