Ind vs Aus: Why India must make a change in the 3rd Test in Indore? Explained

Add as a preferred source on Google

India's home dominance has continued against Australia as Rohit Sharma and his troops have already sealed the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Another fantastic outing saw India wrapping up another Test match within three days as Australia had no answer to India's spin wizards, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. With the combined effort of two Ravis, India will aim to seal the series now in the 3rd Test.

The 3rd Test, originally scheduled in Dharamshala, has been moved to Indore and is set to start on March 1. In this lengthy gap, Australia have a lot of thinking to do, while India sit in a comfortable place.

But for team India, there is only one Achilles heel, and that is KL Rahul. Once a serial run-scorer, KL Rahul has found himself in the mud in the last years or so. He has struggled in every format, and his lack of form has been exposed in the longest format of the game.

Rahul has managed only fifty in his last 12 Test innings, and has found bizarre ways of getting out. He has accumulated only 38 runs in the first two Test matches in this Australia series.

There have been questions regarding his selection from various sectors, with former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad openly blaming the selectors for Rahul's inclusion. Although both captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid has backed KL Rahul, there is an underneath conundrum that needs to be addressed.

In good times, a team can carry a passenger as someone from the team compensates for one's failure. But that doesn't provide justice to another player, who is warming the bench despite scoring runs in the previous matches.

Shubman Gill has been at the receiving end of this. The youngster is in sublime form and has racked up centuries across all formats in the last couple of months. But he finds himself out of the team as KL Rahul has been continuously handed the opportunities.

Gill has scored 5 centuries in the last two months across all formats. He scored a hundred in the last Test that he played against Bangladesh, yet still finds himself warming the bench, which is simply not fair.

Shubman Gill Last 10 Innings:

126* vs NZ (T20I)

11 vs NZ (T20I)

7 vs NZ (T20I)

112 vs NZ (ODI)

40* vs NZ (ODI)

208 vs NZ (ODI)

116 vs SL (ODI)

21 vs SL (ODI)

70 vs SL (ODI)

46 vs SL (T20I)

Despite scoring the most number of runs in the New Zealand series, this is just unfair to someone young like Gill, especially when the player is at the form of his life. He has scored 4 centuries and one fifty across all formats in his last Ten international innings, and not getting an opportunity against Australia will certainly be a demoralising feeling for the Punjab batter.

India will be playing the 3rd Test in Indore, where they played an ODI just a month ago against the Kiwis. And Gill scored an outstanding 112 runs off just 78 balls in that match. As they return to Indore again, Gill will be expecting to have a game.

KL Rahul is currently not helping the team. The only thing he has done so far in the BGT is take a blinder to dismiss Usman Khawaja in the first innings of the Delhi Test. The player looks lacking in confidence, struggling to score runs and has looked out of sorts with the bat. Amid this, team India should seriously consider dropping the player, as it doesn't help anybody.

The message of support from Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid is very nice and there is nothing wrong to support a player through his lean patch, but it doesn't do justice to Shubman. Hence it is to see how the team management approaches ahead of the 3rd Test.

In Indore, India will have the opportunity to win the Test series. And Shubman Gill at the top of the order can surely pluck the only hole in this tightly attached Indian side.