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Shubman Gill's thumb fracture is certainly a "jolt" for India ahead of the series opener against Australia but former captain Sourav Ganguly firmly believes the team has the quality and mental fortitude to overcome the recent shock loss at home in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting in Perth from Friday. Gill, who has five hundreds in 29 Tests, had scored a fifty in Melbourne and a game-setting 91 at Brisbane in the two victories on the previous tour. He suffered a left thumb fracture while fielding in the intra-squad simulation between senior team and India A, ruling him out of the first Test.
"Shubman's injury is jolt for the team no doubt as he is an in-form batter and has scored in Australia. A thumb fracture could rule him out for two Tests.
"But I believe the other batters would step up in absence of Rohit (on paternity leave) and Shubman during the first Test. I don't think New Zealand defeat would have any bearing on this series," the former BCCI president told PTI in an interview ahead of the marquee series.
With Hardik Pandya not playing Test cricket anymore, India don't have too many genuine pace bowling all-rounders and while Nitish Kumar Reddy is still very raw, one of India's finest captains feels that the Andhra cricketer needs to be given chances in specific conditions.
"Look, there is absolutely no point in playing two specialist spinners either at Perth (Optus) or at the Gabba (Brisbane). You obviously need to find a way to play Reddy in these conditions. He is a good batsman and coming in at lower middle order, it will lend proper balance to the side," he gave his rationale for inclusion of a multi-skilled player.
Ganguly also felt that Mohammed Shami should have travelled to Adelaide and played the second Test starting December 6, which is a day/night game. Shami is not being fast-tracked immediately by the selectors, who want him to play in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament before taking a call on his travel Down Under.
"Shami bowled nearly 45 overs, fielded for more than 100 overs and also scored some runs. That's a good enough fitness test to be sent to Australia because you need a bowler of his calibre alongside Jasprit Bumrah."
Why are we talking about transition?
The talks over a possible transition post the shock loss to New Zealand has gained traction but the 51-year-old finds no merit in that argument.
"Transitions will happen when it has to happen. I think any player shouldn't be judged on basis of age. Form and fitness should be the only two criteria to judge a player."
If there are two batters that Ganguly is looking forward to seeing in the series, it is Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant. "I have full confidence in Virat Kohli. He has been a proven performer and he will have a very good series. Kohli and second best Test batter in the current line-up Rishabh will be key. If these two can perform, India will have a good series," he said.
Don't think team is "under-cooked"
Ganguly also doesn't believe that the team is under-cooked in terms of facing Australia in a five-match series.
"Undercooked is a term used when you haven't played any Test cricket at all. They have just played five Tests in last seven weeks so how does the question even arise? I can understand that the defeat against New Zealand was unexpected but you have to understand we played on some extremely difficult tracks. In Australia, the tracks will be good for batting," Ganguly said.
But won't there be a mental impact of such debacle going into a high-profile against the Aussies? "I don't think so. But I must say that we need to get back to playing on good cricket pitches at home.
"We should stop this habit of playing on rank turners. The batsmen lose confidence on such tracks and we have a team which can win Test matches on good tracks.
"Also on turners, you need to learn to grind before you can attack. There are two types of tracks where you can't just hit through the line and get out of trouble. One is a seaming track and other being a rank turner."