Vijay Shankar, Shubman Gill to replace Pandya, Rahul

Team India has called Vijay Shankar and Shubman Gill to replace Kl Rahul and Hardik Pandya for the remaining matches against Australia. Both Shankar and Gill will fly to Australia on Sunday night and will be available for the second ODI.

Rahul and Pandya sent home, face suspensions

KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya have come under the scanner for making controversial statements in a television show. BCCI then slapped a show cause notice and a suspension has been ordered.

The duration of the suspension is still not confirmed but for the time being, the duo has been sent back to India.

ICYMI!

Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar have been called up to India's limited-overs squads in place of the suspended Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul.

➡️ https://t.co/45SqgJ7Uwb pic.twitter.com/Xfeh12xPUg

— ICC (@ICC) January 13, 2019

Opportunity for Gill and Vijay

Shubman Gill was the man of the tournament in the U-19 world cup last year which India won under Prithvi Shaw’s leadership.

Gill then made his first-class debut for Punjab and has impressed everyone by scoring plenty of runs in Ranji Trophy. The right-hand batsman has scored more than 1000 runs and averages 77.78 with a phenomenal strike rate of 77.28.

Great point Bish. Hugely talented. It will be interested to see who steps ahead over time Prithvi Shaw Or Shubman Gill. https://t.co/4rF7SRIOM5

— Scott Styris (@scottbstyris) January 12, 2019

He was part of India A team which recently toured New Zealand and he was effective in that series as well.

Vijay Shankar has already featured for India in the T20 format and has played five T20Is. He was also part of India A team for New Zealand series and scored 188 runs at a whopping average of 94.

Don’t want the opportunity to go: Gill

Gill is excited to play for India’s national team. While speaking with an online cricket portal he said that his only goal is that he doesn’t want to let the opportunity go if he gets selected in the XI.

He added that he will just see how the Indian captain Virat Kohli practises, the way he does his fitness work. He noted that he is looking forward to meeting everyone in the team.