India kickstarted a new era of Test cricket under Rohit Sharma on Wednesday when they took the field for the first Test against West Indies in Dominica.
That signalled not only India’s start of the 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, but also began the Test careers of youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ishan Kishan.
With Jaiswal being confirmed to open with Rohit ahead of the first Test, Shubman Gill, another promising youngster, eventually got slotted into the number three batting position.
Cheteshwar Pujara has occupied the number three batting slot in Tests for more than a decade, but with the Saurashtra batter not part of the current squad, that spot has gone to Gill.
Gill opened up on batting on one down, and felt that batting at number three gave him a good position to consolidate.
The 23-year-old also said that there was not much difference between batting at number three and opening the innings. Gill has opened in 16 of the 17 Tests he has played so far for India, and scored 874 runs at an average of 32.37.
“They (Team management) asked me where I wanted to bat, and I said I wanted No. 3. It is a position where I want to consolidate,” Gill told the host broadcasters ahead of the opening Test.
“It is always good to play with the new ball. I have the experience with the new ball, and when you’re batting at No. 3, it is not very different although it is a little bit of a difference,” the right-handed batter added.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who missed the WTC Final against Australia in June, put up a splendid performance with the ball on Wednesday, with his five-fer helping India rattle the Windies for just 150.
In their first innings reply, India were 80/0 after 23 overs, with Jaiswal (40*) and Rohit (30*) at the crease.