Rishabh Pant tight-lipped on Shubman Gill’s replacement, says ‘..not the best scenario for a captain’

IND vs SA: Shubman Gill had suffered a neck injury during the first Test, and could not bat in both the innings.

It is just not the ideal scenario, where your captain is injured — and you’re 0-1 down in a home Test series. In this case it’s Shubman Gill, who won’t be participating in the second IND vs SA Test in Guwahati, and instead VC Rishabh Pant will lead the team. The latter to agreed that it is not an ‘ideal scenario’.

Who will replace Shubman Gill?

“One-off match is not the best scenario for a captain, but I am thankful to the BCCI for giving me this honour. Sometimes, if you think too much about a big occasion, it doesn’t help,” Pant said at the pre-match press conference. I don’t want to overthink. We had a tough first Test and we need to do whatever is required to win.“

Meanwhile, there is still no clarity as to who would come in for Shubman Gill — and the choices are between Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal. “We have taken a decision on who will play in place of Shubman. The person who will play knows he is playing. I want to be conventional and also blend it with out-of-the-box thinking. I want a nice balance. We have to keep things simple, and the team that plays better cricket will win.”

Devdutt Padikkal vs Sai Sudharsan

Rishabh Pant also clarified, that even though Shubman wanted to play, but his body is not permitting. “Shubman was keen to play. He showed resilience even when his body was not permitting him, and that’s the attitude you want to see. I am having a chat with Gill every day. I got to know about the captaincy yesterday evening.”

India is at the potential risk of losing their second Test series at home, in a year. At around the same time last year, they had lost the series to New Zealand 0-3. Yes, the team did win against West Indies, but the level of opposition is just not the same.