Wasim Jaffer picks his choice of openers for the England Tests

India opener Shubman Gill has been ruled out for at least the first Test against the team’s five-match series against England. The 21-year-old batter suffered an injury to his leg and has forced the Indian skipper Virat Kohli and the management to look at the other possible options. With Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, and Hanuma Vihari as the other batting options available in the team, Kohli will look to explore it during the team’s five-match Test series against England.

Former India opening batter Wasim Jaffer has told Agarwal should open with Rohit Sharma in the first Test against England. Before being dropped from the team, the right-hand batter had a stellar run scoring 1052 runs at an average of 45.74 in just 14 Tests. The 30-year-old batter made his debut Down Under in the 2018-19 series and co-incidentally got dropped from the team during India’s recent series against Australia in the year 2020/21.

But with Gill being injured, the opportunity has again opened up for the opening slot, which apparently has seen a lot of players putting their hands up in the last two years. Jaffer feels Agarwal deserves one more chance on account of his terrific showing in Test cricket in a short span of time for team India.

“It will be a very big opportunity for Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul with Mayank being my first preference. He has had an excellent career so far. He was dropped after two poor outings in Australia but I am sure he will be looking forward to this opportunity. It is a very big series of five Test matches which can make or break a cricketer’s career. I feel KL Rahul can also fit somewhere in the middle-order if not as an opener,” Jaffer said on his YouTube video.

Wasim Jaffer reckons the injury to Shubman Gill has come at a wrong time

The 43-year-old also felt bad for Gill and said the injury has not come at the right time since the 21-year-old was all set to open the innings with Sharma at the top. Gill had a brilliant start to his international career as his epic 91 at the Gabba helped India win the series 2-1 against Australia. But he failed to get going in the home Test series against England, which made the experts question his technique.

“It will be a big blow for India as well as Shubman Gill because as a youngster, you look forward to this kind of series to make a name for yourself. Considering that we judge a player by their overseas performance, it will be a setback for him to miss the first couple of games,” Jaffer added.