Indian captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday announced two changes to his side in the IND vs AFG 2nd T20I. Experienced batter Virat Kohli and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal came into the starting line-up while Shubman Gill and Tilak Verma were dropped from the team. Kohli’s return comes as no surprise as the experienced batter returns to India’s T20 side after 14 months. The interesting change was Yashasvi Jaiswal in place of Shubman Gill.
Indian coach Rahul Dravid before the first match of the series stated that Indian captain Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal would be the preferred openers for India. However, Yashasvi missed the first match of the IND vs AFG series with a sore groin. While Yashasvi’s return in the IND vs AFG 2nd T20I was on the cards, the fact that he came in for Shubman Gill has raised eyebrows.
Gill had a decent match with the bat in the IND vs AFG 1st T20I. The right-hand batter scored 23 of 12 balls, giving India a brisky start. However, Gill was guilty of running captain Rohit Sharma out when he failed to respond to Rohit’s call and left him stranded on the other end.
While misunderstandings in the middle is not uncommon, one can’t help but ask the question about if Gill paid the price of running Rohit out by being dropped from the Indian team in the IND vs AFG 2nd T20I. We’ll never know for sure.