Former Indian skipper and legend Sunil Gavaskar feels that Ajinkya Rahane can come out to bat at Number 4 in Virat Kohli’s absences in the last three Tests of the 4-Match series.
Virat Kohli is going to miss the last three Tests of the 4-Match series against India as he is going to fly back to India to with his wife Anushka Sharma who is going to give birth to their first child in January.
Kohli will play only first Test, starting from December 17 in Adelaide. Thus, it is a major concern for the management to find the batsman who can potentially fill in Virat’s shoes in the purest format of the game.
While interacting with former Australia captain Ricky Ponting on 7 Cricket, the former Indian skipper revealed that Rahane would be willing to bat at Number 4 in Virat Kohli’s absence while KL Rahul or youngster Shubman Gill can get a chance to play at Number 5 for India in whites.
“Virat’s obviously there only for the first Test then you’d expect Rahane to take over (as captain) but they (India) have to find someone to bat at No.4. Who do you expect to take that No.4 spot?” – Ponting asked Gavaskar during the discussion on 7 Cricket.
“It looks to me it could be KL Rahul. Or no, actually I think Rahane will go at No.4 once Virat goes away. Then you might have Rahul bat at No.5 or Shubman Gill,” the former India captain added.
Notably, both KL Rahul and Shubman Gill are in good form with the willow. KL Rahul was picked in the Test squad after witnessing his fantastic form in the just-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.
Gill, on the other hand, is yet to make his debut for India in the longest format and looked in good form in the second practice game against Australia A as he slammed 43 and 65 runs, respectively across two innings.
Talking about the first the Test, Gavaskar said Australia have the experience of playing more pink-ball Tests.
“I would think whoever bats well is going to win the game. Australia has played a lot of (day-night) matches, they have the experience of knowing exactly what happens when the sun’s going down and how to bat and bowl at that particular point of time,” he said.
