Wasim Jaffer had a "hidden message" for stand-in India captain Ajinkya Rahane, who will lead the team in the remaining three Tests in the Border-Gavaskar series in Australia. Jaffer posted a cryptic message on Twitter that read "People In Cricket Know Grief In Life Lingers Aplenty Never Dabble Rise And Handcraft Unique Legacy," a sentence that reads "PICK GILL AND RAHUL" when abbreviated, as advice to Rahane ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Jaffer's witty tweet was followed by a post script for fans. "PS: you guys are open to have a go and decode the msg too," wrote Jaffer.
Calls for the inclusion of Shubman Gill, right-handed opening batsman, in the playing XI have grown all the more because of a poor run with the bat for Prithvi Shaw, who opened alongside Mayank Agarwal in the Adelaide Test.
Shaw returned scores of 0 and 4 in a game that saw his technique exposed and criticised by experts such as Ricky Ponting.
Ponting predicted Shaw's mode of dismissal on air moments before Mitchell Starc bowled Shaw through the gate exactly like Ponting had predicted.
Gill, on the other hand, hit a half-century in India's second warm-up match ahead of the first Test and he is likely to replace Shaw in the openers' slot in the second Test that begins on December 26 in Melbourne.
Rahul is likely to slot in middle order to fill up a spot vacated by skipper Virat Kohli, who returned home after the first Test on a paternity leave.
India lost to Australia in the day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval where they were restricted to their lowest Test total of 36 for 9 in the second innings before succumbing to an eight-wicket defeat.