Courtesy: BCCI
After the conclusion of day one of the fourth Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Indian assistant coach Abhishek Nayar stated in the press conference that batter Shubman Gill wasn’t dropped from the Test team in favour of all-rounder Washington Sundar. The Australian cricket team scored 311/6 in 86 overs at stumps on day one with fifties from debutant Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, and Steve Smith, while Jasprit Bumrah picked up three wickets for India.
Following the decision of Pat Cummins to bat first after winning the toss on a humid morning at the MCG, Sam Konstas on debut took the attack to the Indian pacers, setting the platform for the rest of the batting lineup to capitalise on, which they duly did. Steve Smith (68* off 111) remained unbeaten at the crease at the close of play on day one with Pat Cummins alongside him on (8* off 17), helping Australia get past 300 runs despite a surprising duck from Travis Head.
While addressing the press conference, when Abhishek Nayar was asked about dropping Shubman Gill from the Indian playing XI for the fourth Test match at the MCG in Melbourne in place of Washington Sundar, he was quoted as saying, as per the Indian Express, “Unfortunately for Gill, he had to miss out due to how things panned out. He understands that it’s the team requirement. It’s unfortunate. I wouldn’t say Gill has been dropped per se, it was just unfortunate that he couldn’t find his place in the XI in this game.”
Below are the playing XIs of Australia and India for the fourth BGT Test in Melbourne:
Australia: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
