A short clip from Ravichandran Ashwin’s latest discussion on his YouTube channel is going viral on social media. Many users are claiming that the legendary spinner forgot to mention the name of Shubman Gill while talking about India’s top four for the 2027 World Cup. NDTV did a fact-check on the claim and found out that Ashwin did make the mistake. He took the names of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Shreyas Iyer, but realised seconds later in the same video that he forgot to mention Gill. Ashwin quickly apologized for his mistake.
“You are going to South Africa in 2027. If Shreyas Iyer comes back, he is a quality bona fide number 4. You can also use Ruturaj Gaikwad with Rohit, Virat in the top-4. I don’t know who will open. I would ideally like… I mean in this case, why not Virat? Virat has opened the batting in T20 cricket, why not him again? If he could open the batting with Rohit, then Ruturaj and Shreyas could also come into the mix. It looks very exciting,” said Ashwin in a video on his YouTube channel.
The former India all-rounder was then asked about Aiden Markram and Matthew Breetzke’s innings, and also the batting depth of South Africa. Before Ashwin answered that, he apologized for missing Gill in his last reply.
“Sorry, I forgot the name of Shubman Gill in last discussion. It’s quite unfair again. So there is a competition for a lot of places but I would love to see Ruturaj get a fair go before it is been decided,” he said.
Shubman Gill is currently out of the India squad. He sustained a neck injury during India’s first Test against South Africa in Kolkata last month and remains on the sidelines due to that. In his absence, India tried Yashasvi Jaiswal as an opener with Rohit Sharma in the first two ODIs against the Proteas.