The inaugural edition of the World Test Championship final is all set to take place between India and New Zealand in Southampton from June 18. While the pitch is likely to help the pacers, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has said that India’s opening batsmen Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill could face a lot of difficulties when they will face the world-class pace attack of the Kiwis comprising Tim Southee, Trent Boult, and others as well.
“I will definitely back Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, but they will have a lot of difficulties because of the bowling in front of them; one gets the ball in, and the other takes it away. Both of them will try to pitch the ball up, and there the two openers have to manage,” Irfan Pathan said during a discussion on Star Sports.
He continued: “We are talking about Shubman Gill that his performance in the IPL were not that good, but that is a different format. He started off very well in the red-ball format in Australia. You don’t forget that so soon, and you go according to the format.”
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Meanwhile, former India wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel has a different say as he backed India’s swashbuckling opener Rohit Sharma and added that he will continue to score in the longer format of the game as well. While New Zealand are coming victorious from a two-match Test series against England, India will come fresh in the much-awaited summit clash.
“He (Rohit) will try to be cautious in the first one hour. The sort of approach Rohit Sharma has shown as a Test opener, he is playing very tight, and we see proactiveness in his foot movement. So I feel he has adapted very well as a Test opener,” Parthiv said during the same discussion.
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He further added: “Once he gets set, we know he plays brilliant shots. It might have been the white-ball format when he scored the five hundreds in the 2019 World Cup, but that will be in his mind. So he will be thinking that he can play his shots once he survives the first one hour.”
