Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar to replace KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya for Australia, NZ series
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has called up Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar to replace suspended KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya in India's limited-overs squad for the Australia and New Zealand series.
"With KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya set to return from Australia, the All-India Senior Selection Committee has decided to send all-rounder Vijay Shankar & batsman Shubman Gill as replacements," the BCCI said in a late-night announcement on Saturday.
The 27-year-old Vijay Shankar, a middle-order batsman from Tamil Nadu who can also bowl medium pace, will join the team ahead of the upcoming second ODI match against Australia in Adelaide.
Shankar will also be a part of the India squad for the limited-overs tour to New Zealand. He has played in five T20Is.
Meanwhile, this is the first India call-up for 19-year-old batsman Gill, who has been in brilliant form for Punjab in the ongoing Ranji Trophy. He has scored 790 runs in ten innings at an average of 98.75, including two hundreds and five half-centuries.
Gill has been picked for the ODI and T20I series in New Zealand.
The announcement came after Pandya and Rahul were suspended pending an inquiry into their inappropriate comments on celebrity talk-show Koffee with Karan, ruling them out of the three-match ODI series against Australia and the limited-overs series against New Zealand.
They will return home on the first available flight from Australia as the BCCI suspended them Friday for their outrage-evoking comments on women, hours after the duo's on-field leader Virat Kohli expressed his disapproval.
