Analysis

Three players who can open for India in Shubman Gill’s absence in ODI World Cup 2023

In a shocking piece of news, the Indian star batter Shubman Gill is reported to be suffering from dengue fever. The bad news comes ahead of India’s first match of the big tournament against Australia. According to the reports, Gill is likely to miss the opening game against Australia. If what reports suggest is true, this will be a big blow for the Indian team, as they will be without the services of the best batter they had in the last few months.

That asks for desperate measures from the Indian team. There are players who can replace Gill in the XI as openers. Some of them have the experience of opening the innings for the Indian team in ODIs in the past. But there are others, who do not have the experience of opening the innings in international cricket. But they say, ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’.

As this is an unfortunate instance, India might be looking at all the options at their disposal. There are orthodox options for replacing the opener with genuine openers. there are unorthodox options of replacing the opener with a middle/lower middle order batter, who can also fire at the top. Here are three options, who can open the innings for India against Australia, in the absence of Shubman Gill.

#3 Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav is an out-of-the-box thinker. In his international career, the aggressive batter has mostly been a middle-order or lower-middle-order batter for the Indian team. But the aggressive nature of Yadav is exactly the reason why India might look to have him in the playing XI as an opener, in the absence of Gill. As Yadav can provide brisk starts with his aggressive batting, the team management might ask him to open the innings and give brisk starts to the team without worrying about the results, which would not be a bad thought process.