India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar spoke about the changes made by the tourists for the fourth Test at the MCG against Australia in detail while explaining the management's perspective as to why Shubman Gill was left out. India made a shock call to drop their prime young component of the all-format setup Shubman Gill, who was touted as the next captain as the two-time WTC finalists decided to go with three all-rounders with Washington Sundar replacing the top-order batter.
Nayar, who has worked with Gill previously at the Kolkata Knight Riders, mentioned that it was unfortunate for him to miss out on the playing XI but reckoned that team required that extra bowling option, especially in the spin department with the old ball and hence the change.
"It's pretty obvious that we felt in these conditions, looking at the pitch, having Washi in the bowling attack will give us that variation specially towards the end once the ball gets old post the 50 overs we felt that was an area that we wanted to get better at. We felt Washi could give us the solidarity with Jaddu specially the way Travis Head and Alex Carey were getting runs lower down," Nayar told the reports after the day's play on Thursday while confirming that KL Rahul will down the order to No 3 with skipper Rohit Sharma getting back to the top of the order..
"So we felt having an offie in the ranks will provide us with that. Yes, Rohit will come up in the order and more likely than not, he will open the innings for us.
"I think that was the thought process and unfortunately for him [Gill], just how things panned out, he had to miss out and sometimes I just feel for a young player in a position like that, a big day he wants to make his mark. He understands it's the team's requirement. I wouldn't say that he's been dropped per say, he's just unfortunate that he just couldn’t find his place in this game," he added.
Sundar picked up a crucial wicket of Marnus Labuschagne on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test while Ravindra Jadeja also chipped in with a scalp as Jasprit Bumrah continued to do the heavy lifting with Australia scoring 311 runs for the loss of six wickets.
India's playing XI for 4th Test against Australia: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
