'He is not really dropped'- India's batting coach Abhishek Nayar opens up on Shubman Gill's exclusion for MCG Test

The Indian team made a surprising change for the Boxing Day Test match at the MCG as they left out batter Shubman Gill in favour of Washington Sundar. There are a lot of rumours surrounding the reason behind this decision by the team management.

Shubman Gill is one of the emerging stars in Indian cricket having delivered some match-winning performances in all three formats of the game. Though some experts do not agree with the decision to exclude him for the fourth Test, India’s batting coach Abhishek Nayar opened up on the reason behind preferring Washington Sundar in place of Gill in the playing XI.

"Looking at the pitch, we felt Washi could give solidarity along with Jaddu, I feel for Shubman, but he understands. He is not really dropped, he just couldn't find his way into the combination," said Nayar as quoted by The Times of India.

“When you play a game, there will be emotions, but it is not as big as it seems, I wasn't aware of what happened and don't know what was said," Nayar added.

Also Read - I am a little bit surprised that they have dropped Shubman Gill: Sunil Gavaskar

Gill's performance in this series

Speaking of Gill’s performances in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the right-handed batter has scored only 60 runs in the three innings he has played and has an underwhelming average of 20. His highest score in the five-match series so far is only 31 runs.

The last Test century for the 25-year-old top-order batter came against Bangladesh in Chennai in September which is enough to say that he has not shown the same level of consistency and run-making ability which he is known for doing in the past. The Punjab batter is criticised for his lack of good showing abroad in the longest format of the game. If selected for the Sydney Test, Gill would be looking to improve upon his overseas performance.