Shubman Gill and Shardul Thakur rested for the final ODI against Australia
Shubman Gill and Shardul Thakur have been rested for the third ODI against Australia. The decision was taken to manage the workload of the duo after they featured in the entire Asia Cup and the first two ODIs against Australia. While Gill and Shardul are rested for the final game regulars like Rohit Virat Hardik and Kuldeep will return to the team for the game in Rajkot along with Jasprit Bumrah who was unavailable for the second ODI.
Axar Patel has been ruled out of the third ODI as he has been nursing a quadriceps strain and hasn’t fully recovered. The Indian team management has been working on planning the workload management for a few players before the World Cup.
BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar explained the move saying: “Luckily we got a fair amount of cricket at the Asia Cup. If not, we would’ve looked at it some other way. More than physical, sometimes guys need a mental break, which isn’t a bad thing leading into a tournament like the World Cup.”
Another Opportunity
While Axar’s absence raises hopes for Ashwin to make a third straight appearance for India in the ODI series against Australia, where he has performed rather impressively, picking a wicket in the Mohali tie and three in Indore, the report added that the selectors are hopeful of Axar’s recovery for the World Cup warm-up matches. This could put the management in for a serious headache over whether to snub Ashwin for the World Cup amid Axar’s injury concerns.
A Year to Remember
Coming back to the rested duo of Gill and Thakur, the former has especially been in tremendous form this year till now from becoming a regular player in the team in all three formats to scoring a double century in ODI cricket the youngster has been tasting success with every match.
In the second ODI against Australia on Sunday the right-hander added another feather to his cap as he broke Hashim Amla’s record of batter with most ODI runs after 35 innings. Amla had amassed 1844 runs after 35 innings. In addition to this Gill broke various other records during his innings at Indore. Gill now has most centuries at home (4) in a single calendar year for an Indian
