New Delhi: Former Indian cricket team captain and World Cup winner Kapil Dev shared his words of encouragement for the travelling Indian team for the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy. Team India will start their title defence of the Border Gavaskar Trophy at Perth, WACA. The men in blue will be without the service of their regular captain, Rohit Sharma who has decided to stay back in India after the birth of his second child.
Moreover, the Indian batting lineup has faced another major jolt after Shubman Gill, on the other hand, faced an injury in his lift thumb when fielding in the slips during an intra-squad match on the second day.
Kapil Dev wished the team good luck before the start of the series as he spoke to reporters. He advised the Indian team to not listen much and to openly express themselves:
…I just want to wish my team all the luck. Don’t listen much, go and express yourself. Those who will play well will win. There is no need to take excess pressure…
Full India Squad
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (Wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant (Wk), KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar
Bumrah’s big responsibility in Perth
Meanwhile, India will be travelling without skipper Rohit Sharma for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Rohit, who welcomed his second child with wife Ritika Sajdeh on Friday, will join the squad ahead of the second Test in Adelaide, a pink-ball game beginning December 6.
In his absence, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will step in as captain in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as previously confirmed by head coach Gautam Gambhir. With a depleted squad and no regular captain, the stand-in skipper will look to replicate the success that Ajinkya Rahane had back in 2021/22.