Rohit Sharma has revealed why Shubman Gill wasn’t included in the India cricket team’s XI for the Boxing Day Test. Posed the question after Team India lost the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) Test in the last session by 184 runs. The India captain didn’t use the word ‘dropped’ but claimed that the team composition was such Gill couldn’t find himself in the team.
Shubman Gill wasn’t in the “right combo”
Rohit Sharma revealed that he had a chat with Gill about his non-selection for the India vs Australia 4th Test. His reasoning was that they needed more bowlers, and that’s why Washington Sundar was slotted in and KL Rahul batted at Gill’s position of number three.
“I had a chat with him. There’s no way when you’re leaving someone out, for whatever reason it is, you will have a chat. And the chat was with him; it was clear he was not dropped. We just wanted to have that extra bit of cushion in the bowling, and hence we opted for an all-rounder, which shouldn’t weaken our batting lineup. You know, compromising a batter for a bowler was not something that I wanted to do.” Rohit Sharma told reporters in Melbourne.
“We wanted to bat as deep as possible, and along with that, have the same combo, along with that, have a bowling attack that can take 20 wickets. We considered everything, and we ended up compromising him, unfortunately. Look, with him, there was never a doubt that he was not batting well or he was not scoring runs or anything like that. It was just to get that combination where we can cover both bases, batting and bowling. We opted for that option,” the Indian captain.
Doing what’s better for the team
The opener added that whatever changes are made are to make the team well-rounded according to the conditions. That’s exactly why Washington was played over Gill, and on the batting front, the move worked; even the bowling return from the off-spinner wasn’t great.
“Everyone has to understand that because eventually, we don’t make personal decisions. It is in the best interest of the team. We want to put the team ahead and think about what is the right combo for this particular venue and this opposition. That’s how I plan. Sometimes, you can see there have been a lot of changes in the team, but you have to make sure that whatever suits the conditions suits your team and that you can cover all the facets of the game. You make that decision, and that’s what we do,” Rohit Sharma concluded.
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