Gill and Surya under scanner as India face South Africa in Dharamsala T20I

Shubman Gill faces a survival test in the South Africa T20Is, with India’s team management weighing options ahead of the T20 World Cup. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s poor form adds pressure as India prepare for their title defence

Dharamsala: The countdown to save his place in the playing XI begins for a beleaguered Shubman Gill, who is likely to get three matches against South Africa to prove his worth before the Indian team management switches to a ‘Plan B’ ahead of the T20 World Cup, starting in six weeks.

As India gear up to play the third T20I against the Proteas on Sunday in sub-10 degree temperatures in the lap of the ice-clad Dhauladhar range, things are suddenly heating up in the Indian dressing room, with the prolonged poor form of skipper Suryakumar Yadav coming under the scanner.

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Worse, his deputy Shubman Gill, who was pushed into the XI at the expense of a settled Sanju Samson, is not inspiring much confidence.

The South African pace attack featuring Anrich Nortje, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Ottniel Baartman and Lutho Sipamla has shown how to bowl on Indian tracks, and the HPCA Stadium strip, offering extra bounce and some movement off the surface, will certainly keep them interested.

Among all T20 sides, South Africa, in terms of personnel, appears to have the balance to win the trophy in the Indian subcontinent this time. Quinton de Kock’s return, along with the likes of Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis, Donovan Ferreira, David Miller and all-rounder Jansen, gives their batting an intimidating look.

With only eight games, starting from the third T20I, left before the start of the T20 World Cup title defence, India’s under-fire head coach Gautam Gambhir will not be able to afford two out-of-form top-order batters in the starting line-up.

Being the skipper of the side, Surya will certainly have immunity going into the T20 World Cup despite being completely out of form for the past one year, but the same cannot be said about Gill, who was not the original choice as an opener.

Gill’s entry into the T20 set-up was a case of trying to fix something that was not broken and things have not looked good so far. In this backdrop, Gill would need to bat out of his skin to prove that the Ajit Agarkar-led committee was not wrong in dropping Samson for one bad series against England.

The stylish Indian Test and ODI opener will have to find his T20 game and at least score in two of the three matches if he does not want Samson to get his place back or for that matter, find Yashasvi Jaiswal, with a strike-rate of 165, enter the fray during the New Zealand series.

 

Lack of clarity

While head coach Gambhir is too proud a person to admit, sending Axar Patel as a one-drop batter during the second T20I was a “tactical brain fade” from the team’s think-tank.

The misstep with Axar’s promotion is unlikely to be repeated in the third game where the skipper is expected to go back to No 3, where he had a lot of success in his early years at the international level.

Similarly, Shivam Dube being sent at number eight due to the shuffling of the batting order was another poor call which would need course correction in the next game.

 

Is there a place for Kuldeep Yadav?

Kuldeep Yadav is one bowler who has consistently troubled the Proteas batters but in an Indian team where batting till No 8 is non-negotiable, the left-arm wrist spinner often finds himself on the sidelines.

At Dharamsala too, he might have to sit out as Kuldeep and Varun Chakravarthy, two non-batters, cannot be clubbed in the same T20 playing XI as that would compromise batting depth.

While Arshdeep has not had a good series so far, it will be interesting to see if the team management can find a place for Kuldeep in the playing XI with Hardik Pandya sharing the new ball with Jasprit Bumrah.

 

Teams

India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, NT Tilak Verma, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson (wk), Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar.

South Africa: Aiden Markram (captain), Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Lutho Sipamla, Ottniel Baartman, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, George Linde.

Match starts at 7 pm.