Rishabh Pant reveals Shubman Gill’s batting position for England Tests

LEEDS: India’s wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant on Wednesday, shared that captain Shubman Gill will bat at No.4 in the five-match Test series against England, scheduled to get underway on June 20.

Two-time ICC World Test Championship (WTC) runners-up face the stiff challenge of finalising their batting order for the upcoming series after the retirements of veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

Wicketkeeper batter Pant, while addressing the pre-match press conference here on Wednesday, acknowledged the challenge but reiterated that the discussions are now down to the No.3 position as he listed down candidates for the following two positions.

Pant shared that newly-appointed captain Gill will occupy the No.4 position, once held by Kohli, who 7564 runs at the position, while he will continue to bat at No.5.

“I think there is still discussion going on, who’s going to play at No. 3 but definitely 4 and 5 are fixed. I think Shubman is going to bat at No. 4 and I’m going to stick to No. 5 as of now, and the rest, we’re going to keep on discussing about that,” Pant said.

The 27-year-old further shared that he maintains ‘good camaraderie’ with Gill on the field, which he believes would be special for the touring side.

“I think me and Shubman have a really good camaraderie off the field. If you’re good friends off the field, it eventually comes on the field as well. That is something I’ve always believed,” Pant noted.

“Me and him, we gel really well together. We keep on having conversations and the kind of comfort zone we have with each other, I think that is really going to be special for us.”

India squad for England Tests:

Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akashdeep, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav.