"Medical team hasn't ruled him out yet": Head Coach Rahul Dravid drops major update on Shubman Gill
Oct 06, 2023
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], October 6 : India's men's cricket team head coach Rahul Dravid provided a major update on Shubman Gill who has been suffering from dengue fever according to sources.
Shubman Gill, who has shown immense potential, established himself as India's opening batter during the Asia Cup, where he ended as the top scorer with 302 runs at an average of 75.50. However, it was reported that he was unwell and had dengue fever.
But earlier on Friday it was reported that Shubman was unwell and suffering from dengue fever. Rahul Dravid provided an update on his current situation and said the medical team has not ruled him out of their World Cup opener against Australia on Sunday.
"He's feeling better today than he was yesterday so that is a positive and the medical team is monitoring on a day-to-day basis. We will see whatever decision the medical team takes and we'll see how he feels the day after tomorrow. The medical team hadn't ruled him out yet," Dravid said in the pre-match press conference.
If Shubman misses out on the opener Ishan Kishan will be the ideal choice to replace Gill and start the innings with skipper Rohit Sharma.
Kishan was initially a part of the middle-order set-up but with him possibly shifting to the opening order, the in-form batter Suryakumar Yadav will enter the discussion of making his place in the playing XI.
While talking about Surya, Dravid said, "He's always been a good player. It is the nature of our country, right? Two good knocks and certainly he has cracked it. It's a question of confidence that those two knocks would have given him setting him up beautifully on the back end. He is working on certain things, he's learning a few things. We have told him about finding other ways of scoring than his general route in T20s. He's in a really good space in terms of his skills."
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.