World Cup 2023: Shubman Gill ruled out of the match against Afghanistan

Indian opener Shubman Gill will continue to miss the World Cup action as he has been ruled out of the second match against Afghanistan, which will be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Wednesday. BCCI provided a medical update on Gill’s illness, revealing the right-hander is yet to recover fully and he has not traveled with the team to the country’s capital.

In Gill’s absence, Ishan Kishan opened the innings with Rohit Sharma in the opener against Australia but was dismissed for a golden duck.

BCCI said in an official statement on their website, “Team India batter Shubman Gill will not be travelling with the team to Delhi on 9th October 2023. The opening batter who missed the team’s first fixture in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 against Australia in Chennai is set to miss the team’s next fixture against Afghanistan in Delhi on the 11th of October.”

Two days out from the Australia game, head coach Rahul Dravid said, “He [Gill] is certainly feeling better today than he was yesterday, so that’s a positive, but the medical team is monitoring him on a day-to-day basis. We’ve got 36 hours to go, so we’ll see how that goes. We’ll wait to take a decision at the last minute we possibly can.”

But Gill could not recover in time. “We waited till today morning and he couldn’t recover,” Rohit Sharma said at the toss against Australia.

Gill has been in stellar form in 2023, scoring 1230 runs in 20 ODI matches at an unbelievable average of 72.35 and a strike rate of 105.03. Out of his total six ODI centuries, five have come in the ongoing year and thus the team management will be hopeful that he recovers in time for the big clash against arch-rivals Pakistan, which will be played in Ahmedabad on October 14.

Meanwhile, India won their opening game against Australia by six wickets after fine performances from Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and KL Rahul.