The India tour of England which begins on June 20 marks the start of a new chapter for cricket in the country. Although final overs cricket is bow a part of the sport at the same time, Indian cricket team will not include Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in Tests either. Having Shubman Gill lead the side, the series will put them to the test. Different sources say that Rahul and Jaiswal will be the openers and Sudharshan is expected to bat at No. 3. The team will send Shubman Gill out to bat in slot number 4. On the other hand, Ricky Ponting, current coach for the Punjab Kings and a former Australian captain, disagreed.

Ricky Ponting’s Take On This

“I think (Sai) Sudarshan and (Yashasvi) Jaiswal will open the batting (in England) as Sudarshan just looks like a class player to me and technically I think he could do well at Test level,” Ponting said on ICC Review.

“They’ll have two pretty young opening batters, so they might look to go for someone that’s got a bit more experience at No.3.

“Whether that’s KL (Rahul) or Karun (Nair) at No.3, and then Shubman might end up being that No.4 player, which will probably make life for him a little bit easier as a captain as well.

“Not having to be opening or batting at No.3 as a young captain might make it easier. Their top five will probably be Sudarshan, Jaiswal, KL, Gill and Karun Nair for the start of the England series.”

Shubman Gill’s Test Stats

It’s clear that Gill shows a positive attitude and fights well at the crease while playing tests. In 32 games, he has collected 1,893 runs, for each innings being 35.05. He managed to get 128 once, reflecting the fact that he can make significant contributions with his batting. So far, Gill has scored 12 hundreds and half-centuries during his Test career. His strike rate is 59.92 which indicates that he plays in an old, cautious manner, but at the same time he can continue batting during the game and reach scoring milestones.