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After Virat Kohli’s retirement from Test cricket on May 12, a new player will take the No. 4 batter’s role for Team India in the upcoming five-match series against England.
Shubman Gill is likely to bat at No. 4 for India in Test series against England. (Picture Credit: X/@BCCI)
Virat Kohli was India’s No. 4 batter in Test cricket since Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement from the five-day format of the game in November 2013. But now after 11 years, when Kohli has retired from the five-day format of the game, a new player will take the all-important role. A lot in the past one month has been discussed about who should bat at No. 4.
Many former greats and experts of the game have backed the likes of Karun Nair, KL Rahul, and Shubman Gill to succeed Kohli as India’s new No. 4 batter, but nothing has been finalised yet, at least not officially.
It will be interesting to see who comes out to bat at 4 for India in the series opener against England, which is set to begin on June 20 at Headingley. But ahead of the big ticket match in Leeds, India’s new Test captain, Gill, was directly asked about his batting position by former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik during a recent interview for Sky Sports, but Gill, who was India’s No. 3 batter in the last Test series played against Australia, refused to give a clear answer.
According to Gill, the Indian team is playing a warm-up match, and post that fixture, the team management will decide the batting order.
“Not really. I think we are playing a practice game, a warm-up game, so I’m going to maybe test the waters in that one and see which batting position suits for who,” Gill said.
Gill, who is leading the race to become India’s new No. 4 batter, has batted at No. 3 in Tests for the 2023-25 WTC cycle, and before that he used to play as an opener. Gill has never batted for India at the fourth position in any format of the game to date, but the England series could mark the start of a new era.
Rahul has batted at No. 4 for India in Tests and ODIs in the past, but the 33-year-old right-handed batter from Karnataka is expected to continue as an opening batter in the series against England. He boosted his chances as an opener by scoring a century for India A in the second unofficial Test played against England Lions in Northampton from June 6 to 9.
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
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