Shubman Gill injury: Why Shubman Gill not playing in 2nd innings? Has C Pujara opened the batting before in Test cricket?

Shubman Gill not playing in 2nd innings: The regular Indian opening batter hasn’t opened the batting in the second innings.

During the second day of the second Test of the ongoing New Zealand’s tour of India in Mumbai, fans were left surprised after India captain Virat Kohli didn’t enforce the follow-on after his bowlers bowled out the opposition for 62 in 28.1 overs.

The surprise element had grown all the more when Cheteshwar Pujara and not Shubman Gill walked out as Mayank Agarwal’s opening partner in the second innings.

Pujara, who has batted at No. 3 in 139 out of his 156 Test innings, has opened the batting for only the seventh time in his 92-match Test career. The last time when Pujara had opened the batting was in Colombo during the third Test of India’s tour of Sri Lanka six years ago. The match is fondly remembered for him scoring a match-winning 145* (289) to carry the bat in the first innings.

Why is Shubman Gill not playing in 2nd innings vs New Zealand?

Readers must note that Gill didn’t come out to bat as he had suffered a finger injury while fielding at mid-wicket earlier in the session. Gill, who had copped multiple blows on his body while fielding close to the batter, had to walk off the field after getting hit on his finger.

It all had happened on the first delivery of the 19th over when Gill had dropped Kyle Jamieson off Jayant Yadav. With the bowler overstepping, Gill’s drop didn’t hurt India but he surely hurt his finger in the process.

It was in the same over that Gill left the field with uncapped batter Suryakumar Yadav called in as a substitute fielder. In the absence of an official update, it will be interesting to see how much of a role Gill will play in this match at the Wankhede Stadium.