Team India skipper Rohit Sharma said that ailing Shubman Gill was “ 99 per cent fit to play” ahead of the high-voltage match against Pakistan on Saturday. The captain's comment is seen as a strong indication that Shubman Gill would get to play his first World Cup match in Ahmedabad.
If Gill is picked for the clash against archrivals, the casualty is likely to be left-handed Ishan Kishan. The wicketkeeper batter was Rohit Sharma's opening partner for both the games India played.
Indian skipper clearly indicated that he was looking to add more depth to the batting while facing Pakistan. KL Rahul is keeping wickets for India as Ishan Kishan has struggled with the bat -- scoring 0 and 47 against Australia and Afghanistan respectively.
Shubman Gill was unavailable for selection due to dengue and was even admitted to a hospital in Chennai earlier this week.
Focussing on the team’s preparations, Sharma brushed aside any pressure to maintain India's 100% record against Pakistan in the ICC ODI World Cups. “I'm not a person who looks into all those kinds of stats. You want to play good cricket on the particular day to win the game. And that is what we will be focusing on -- playing good cricket, understanding the conditions, what is required from the team's perspective and things like that,” he said.
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The 'Hitman' asserted that the hosts were not perturbed by the 100000-strong crowd cheering for them and the noise or the posse of celebrities present. “All the guys are quite used to playing in front of big crowds. So, like I just said, now it can only work in your favour. It cannot work against you. Anywhere we go, people turn out in huge numbers. And that is good for the team and also good for the sport in general as well.”
Rohit Sharma said he kept things simple when it came to shutting all the noise out. "I'm not on social media for the past nine months now. Everyone has their own way of dealing with it. Some people like it, some don't. But that's not my place to tell anyone how to do it. They have to work out their own way of dealing with these things.
"...Yes, it's a massive game. We’ve just got to come against a quality opposition and play good cricket, which we've done in the last two games. And hopefully, we can again show some consistency in our performance and play a good game of cricket.”
He remained non-committal over the due factor and playing three spinners.