Indian cricket team captain Shubman Gill cleared a lot of air ahead of the side’s 4th Test against England in Manchester, that starts on Wednesday. India have been dealt with big injury blows with allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy being ruled out of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, while Arshdeep Sigh has been ruled out of the fourth Test. Gill confirmed that even fast bowler Akash Deep, who took 10 wickets in India’s win over England in Birmingham, will not play the fourth Test either. India trail England 1-2 in the five-match series after the first three games.
“Akash Deep is unavailable, so is Arshdeep, but we have good players in the team to pick twenty wickets. It is not ideal to have different bowlers, but I was prepared,” Gill said on Tuesday. “He (Anshul Kamboj) is very close to making his debut. We will see between Prasidh and Anshul tomorrow.
“We have seen his (Kamboj’s) skill set. We have the belief that he can win matches for us. It is never easy when there are injuries. Nitish (Reddy) is missing and Akash is also unavailable for this match. (But) we have good enough players to take 20 wickets.”
If Kamboj does play against England, it will be the 24-year-old pacer’s first international game. Kamboj has an experience of 24 games in which he has taken 79 wickets. He also has one first-class half-century.
Gill also confirmed that the team management is confident that Karun Nair will turn around his form. After three Tests at Headingley, Edgbaston and Lord’s, Nair has tallied only 131 runs at an average of shade below 22.
“We think he is batting well. First match he didn’t play at his number. No issues with his batting. Once you are able to get to 50 and get in the zone. We are hopeful that he can turn it around: Gill said on Nair, who so far produced scores of 0, 20, 31, 26, 40 and 14 in the first three Tests,” Gill added.
He also confirmed that Rishabh Pant will be the designated wicketkeeper in the fourth test in Manchester. “Rishabh Pant will keep wickets in the fourth Test against England in Manchester,”
Pant played as the wicketkeeper only for 35 overs in the third Test due to the injury with Dhruv Jurel doing the duty for the rest of the match.
In fact, Jurel had an underwhelming time behind the stumps during England’s second innings, conceding 25 byes and the home side won the third Test by 22 runs.
