Cricket: Sunil Gavaskar suggests a potential change for India ahead of England Tests

Team India has a respectable break ahead of the five-Test match series against England. Following their loss to New Zealand in the last of the World Test Championship, India have the opportunity to adjust and chip away at the spaces that let them down in Southampton against New Zealand.

Sunil Gavaskar has proposed an adjustment of the opening combination for the Test series against England. He believes that Mayank Agarwal ought to get approval instead of Shubman Gill to open the innings.

India's last three tours through England show that Team India is not very comfortable against the moving Dukes ball in the UK. They last won a Test series in England in 2007 under Rahul Dravid, however have since lost 0-4, 1-3, 1-4 in resulting visits in 2011, 2014, and 2018 separately. '

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In a conversation with SportsTak, Sunil Gavaskar feels it can begin by reshuffling India's opening blend: "Mayank Agarwal has done a really good job for India, twice he's scored a double century opening the innings. It’s a good thing that the BCCI and Jay Shah have taken the initiative to conduct some warm-up matches before the England Tests so there you can decide who between Gill and Agarwal can open for India."

"Make them open the innings together because Rohit Sharma is a certainty and he can be rested for a game. That would give you an idea of who has the better technique for English conditions. And then based on that, they can make a decision whether they want to play Mayank Agarwal or Shubman Gill."

According to him, Shubman Gill's concern lies in his absence of footwork, and Sunil Gavaskar figures it is something that was featured in the WTC final in England however even at home when the batsman's runs evaporated.

"Gill's footwork isn't much. He only goes in front and that's not the case with him only in England. Even in the series in India, there too, he had just one movement which is forward. There's no effort to go on the back foot and that is why he plays across the line" - he said.

"Because once your feet go forward, with that balance, it's tough to get back on the backfoot if the length is slightly short, is tough. So he needs to work hard, there's no doubt about his talent. But if he works a bit hard, he will get the reward."

Mayank Agarwal has remained uninvolved subsequent to encountering two bad games in Australia and since Shubman Gill had a rich series down under. Mayank Agarwal averages a solid 45.74 in 14 Tests by scoring 1052 runs, scoring three centuries. With the BCCI a few warm-up games before the series, the management could offer Mayank Agarwal a few chances in those prior to choosing if he could turn into Shubman Gill's substitution at the top.