Team India’s young cricketer Shubman Gill has left out of the playing XI yet again, as India took the field against Australia the for the 2nd Test match of BGT 2023 at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. KL Rahul retained his spot in the XI, while India’s Shreyas Iyer was brought in as a replacement for star batter Suryakumar Yadav. Shubman’s snub became the talk of the town for the cricketing fans, who argued the opener is too good of form to be left out.
The Indian team had an excellent performance in the 1st Test against Australia played at Nagpur in its quest to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. As the Indian team look to continue with the same intensity, things have moved to the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi, on February 17, Friday, while the Australian team has won the coin toss and opted to bat. However, the surprising element was that Rohit Sharma and co chose to stick with wicketkeeper-opener KL Rahul, despite his frail form, over young in-form opener Shubman Gill.
Shubman Gill played his first Test for India in 2020 against Australia. He has now become a regular in the Indian ODI squad. He made his maiden Test century for India in the series played against Bangladesh in 2022. He played 13 Test matches for India, and his tally of runs stood at 736 runs in 25 innings. Gill has also hit four half-centuries so far in his career.
On the other hand, KL Rahul has found it tough to find form across all three formats for India. KL’s last Test century came in December 2021 against South Africa, while his previous fifty came in January 2022. Playing into the second Test against Australia, KL has yet to cross the 30-run mark in his last eight Test innings.
The Internet is not very happy with Rahul’s retention in the playing XI, and this is how they have reacted: