‘Maybe Prithvi Shaw could come in for Shubman Gill’ - Wasim Jaffer opines ahead of India’s 3rd T20I against New Zealand

Despite cementing his spot as an opener in the ODI set-up, Shubman Gill has struggled massively in the shortest format of the game. Against New Zealand in the ongoing T20I series, the 23-year-old has scored only 18 runs in two matches and thus, his position in the playing XI is currently under threat. With Prithvi Shaw on the bench, who can give Men in Blue a cracking start up in the order, Gill's spot might come under question.

Former India batter Wasim Jaffer too believes that the U19 World Cup-winning skipper Shaw can replace Gill due to the Mumbai batter's tremendous form at the moment. The 44-year-old also mentioned that even though Ishan Kishan and Rahul Tripathi are struggling to find form, he is not concerned about them.

“If India consider a change, maybe Prithvi Shaw could come in for Shubman Gill because he is in a good form and is better suited for T20 cricket. But otherwise, I'm not concerned a lot about Ishan Kishan and Rahul Tripathi,” Jaffer said in an interaction with ESPNcricinfo.

‘Umran Malik struggles in T20 cricket’ - Jaffer prefers Chahal over young pacer

Even in the spin-dominating track of Lucknow, skipper Hardik Pandya gave Yuzvendra Chahal only two overs in the low-scoring contest. He gave away just four runs in the process and picked up the important wicket of Finn Allen. Thus, given his performance, Jaffer wants the team management to back Chahal and stated he should keep on playing instead of Umran Malik, who according to him, struggles in T20 cricket.

“It would be better to have Yuzvendra Chahal as New Zealand struggle against spinners and if there is a wrist-spinner, India must utilize it. As I mentioned previously, Umran Malik struggles in T20 cricket. He is yet to learn the variations needed to succeed in this format. So, in that way, Chahal is a better option,” the former cricketer added.

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store