The Indian selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, will soon be naming the squads for the upcoming Sri Lanka tour. Agarkar and Co. though have a happy headache with multiple players putting up eye-catching performances for the opener’s slot in T20Is.
India are slated to play three T20Is and three ODIs against Sri Lanka and it will be the first tour for Gautam Gambhir after being named as the new head coach earlier this month.
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A second-string India T20I squad toured Zimbabwe for a five-match T20I series with as many as four players making their debuts. The tourists clinched the series 4-1.
Along with captain Shubman Gill, there are three more claimants for the opener’s role including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abhishek Sharma.
Gill is happy that there’s competition in the team and feels it’s up to the selectors to make the decision based on the recent performances.
Gill was the top run-getter of the Zimbabwe tour and he opened the innings alongside Abhishek for the first three games. Abhishek started his international career with a duck before blasting a century.
Jaiswal then joined the squad midway through the tour and played a couple of significant innings including an unbeaten 93 in the fourth T20I.
Gaikwad didn’t open during the series as he batted in the middle order but scored at a strike-rate of 158.33 to keep the selectors interested.
“It’s a good thing that everyone’s performing. It shows that everyone is hungry and nobody is ready to take it easy. For any country or board, that’s always a good thing,” said Gill after the fifth T20I.
“Anyone who got the opportunity grabbed it with both hands. The openers to bowlers to allrounders to spinners, everyone made a mark and I think the selectors have now seen everything and it’s up to them to name the squad for the next series,” he added.
Gill led the team for the first time in his international career and he enjoyed the opportunity.
“One thing about captaincy I feel is how much confidence you can show in your players. I try to do that and make them believe that if you try and execute the plans, the results will always follow,” Gill said.
“After losing the first match, we were under a bit of pressure. It’s not easy to play back to back games and the series was planned in a way that there were two back-to-back games, a couple of days rest and then again back-to-back games. It’s never easy playing a series like that but I think the way we came back after losing the first T20I was really remarkable,” he added.
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