The first Test between India and Australia is upon us. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 begins on February 9, in Nagpur, and one could not have asked for a better contest than this as focus shifts from white-ball cricket to red-ball. There are many discourses going on at the moment ahead of the Nagpur Test. Some of them are: How the pitch will behave? Have Indians doctored the pitch? The spin-threat for the left-handed Aussie batters. One of the talking points from Indian perspective is the selection of the playing XI. With Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer not there in the squad due to respective injuries, the big talking point is who to pick at number 5? Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav?
KL Rahul is the vice-captain of the side and he is expected to play and open with Rohit. That means Gill, who opened in Bangladesh, will be told to come down to number 5, the only place remaining for a pure batter. But Gill is not a number 5 batter. All his life, from age-group cricket to IPL to national team, he has been played the role of a top-order batter. Despite his good form, making Gill bat at a position where he never bats makes no sense.
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— Surya Kumar Yadav (@surya_14kumar) February 7, 2023
Suryakumar Yadav is a strong contender for that place because he has been a solid middle-order batter for ages. What makes his case further strong is his ability to score quickly. With the Nagpur pitch expected to be a rank-turner, India will need a batter like Suryakumar Yadav who has a range of shots to counter the spin of Nathan Lyon and the likes. Rishabh Pant does the same job and that is why India have been able to build up good scores despite losing wickets early in the last 2 to 3 years. Pant’s counter-attack ability has saved India from numerous losses while some draws have resulted in India wins thanks to the same approach. Surya has the skill to do the same job. He is in top T20 form at the moment and he may be asked to play the same way, which is to attack from the word go, something on the lines of England’s style of playing Test cricket – The Bazball.
If India intend to find a like-for-like replacement for Pant the batter, Surya is a better choice than Gill. Also, asking Gill to adjust to middle order after such great show in white-ball cricket at the top of the order is unjustifiable. He is an opener and he should remain one. If KL Rahul fails at the top, he is there to replace him. Hope India enters the Nagpur Test with the same mentality.
India vs Australia 1st Test Probable Playing 11: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
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