"Forget History": England Great Wants This Batter To Replace Shubman Gill In WTC Final

Shubman Gill has been enjoying a brilliant run of form in all three formats of cricket and the youngster looks like a sure-shot opening batter choice for India in the World Test Championship final against Australia. However, former England skipper Michael Vaughan has a different suggestion for the Indian cricket team. In a recent interaction, Vaughan said that KL Rahul should replace Gill as the opener for India as he is more comfortable against the moving deliveries. The final is taking place at the Oval and with the ball expected to move, Gill can find it difficult to handle the conditions.

"The only change that they could make in English conditions is that KL Rahul plays the moving ball better than Shubman Gill. Shubman's a tremendous young player, but you've got to win that one game of cricket. Forget history; it's about picking the best XI to win the World Test Championship. When it's straight, Shubman is a dangerous player, but I've seen a few little technical deficiencies. When the ball moves, he takes his hand a little bit too much towards the ball.

"He snicks off quite consistently. I'm not sure they will do that (replace Shubman with KL Rahul) because I'm not in the selection room. (But) don't pick a team based on what's next or who's going to play in the West Indies; you've got to pick the team for that one game of cricket," Vaughan told Cricbuzz.

Rahul has not enjoyed the best of forms with low scores in Test cricket and although he has scored multiple fifties in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, his strike rate has been a concern.

The squad for the WTC Final saw the return of Ajinkya Rahane but Suryakumar Yadav missed out.

Topics mentioned in this article

Michael Vaughan KL Rahul Shubman Gill India Cricket Team Cricket