India made some interesting changes to their playing XI as they squared off against West Indies in the first Test in Dominica on Wednesday. Young batter Yashasvi Jaiswal, who opened the innings with captain Rohit Sharma, was handed his Test debut along with wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan. On the other hand, Shubman Gill got shifted to no. 3 in the batting order, replacing Cheteshwar Pujara who missed out on the Caribbean tour.
Gill had urged the team management to shift him to no.3, the spot where he has largely played in the domestic circuit. The changes have certainly altered the dynamics of the entire batting line-up, also leaving several experts surprised. Former India opener Aakash Chopra has said it is an unusual thing in Indian cricket but it could be beneficial for the side.
“Shubman Gill told team management that he wanted to play at no.3. It’s a very interesting thing, because you don’t usually hear such things happening in Indian cricket. You don’t see a player telling team management that he likes to bat in a particular position. Neither does anyone make that request, nor anyone is given that luxury. But the good thing is Yashasvi Jaiswal can now open,” Chopra said on his official YouTube channel.
A couple of years back when Gill began his Test career in Australia, Chopra had predicted that the young batter might bat down the order someday. Recalling his prediction, the former cricketer said opening is one of the toughest jobs in the longest format of the game.
“But in Test cricket, if there’s one difficult job, it’s that of an opener. Especially away from home. No.3 is still a challenging spot, but no.4 is the most settled spot and you usually keep your best batter in that spot. You don’t want him to bat with the tail.
“Shubman at no.3, I’m not surprised. I tweeted in 2020 that he would play long for India but in few years’ time, you would see him batting in the middle. Now, he has himself expressed that wish,” he said.
Meanwhile, West Indies’s decision of batting first backfired as India bowled them out for a score of 150. The spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shared 8 wickets among each other as the former bagged a five-wicket haul and completed 700 scalps in international cricket. Rohit and Jaiswal came out to bat and stitched a partnership of 80 runs and India ended the day trailing behind 70 runs without any loss.
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