ICC World Cup 2023: Ill Gill getting better, but still in doubt for Australia game

Shubman Gill during a practice session recently. Pic/Getty Images

Shubman Gill has been one of India's most impactful players across formats in 2023, but especially in 50-over cricket, the 24-year-old has been in sensational touch. With 1,230 runs at an average of 72.35 and a strike-rate of 105.03, the right-hander is the highest run-maker in the world this year. But a huge question mark looms over the opener's availability for India's World Cup opener against Australia on Sunday.

Gill is down with dengue and is a highly doubtful starter, though head coach Rahul Dravid refused to rule him out, saying he was gradually getting better and a final official call wouldn't be taken until a little before the game.

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"He's certainly feeling better today than he was yesterday, so that's a positive," Dravid said on Friday. "The medical team is monitoring him on a day-to-day basis. We've got 36 hours to go, we'll see how that goes. The medical team haven't ruled him out yet. We'll wait to take a decision at the last minute if we possibly can. We'll see how he feels the day after tomorrow." If Gill misses the game, India have options in Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul to partner skipper Rohit Sharma at the top of the tree.

As the hosts, India will play their league games at nine different venues, and while Dravid admitted that it was important to read pitches well, everything would eventually boil down to execution.

"It's going to come down to guys who can execute the skills," he insisted. "I don't think this World Cup is going to be decided by whether you read the pitch correctly, it's going to be decided on the way you play on those pitches, on the variety of conditions that you are going to get.

"There are going to be different conditions and different grounds. Adaptability is going to be a huge challenge in this World Cup and how teams adapt to various
venues, conditions and pitches and various bowling they will have to face will probably decide how successful teams are," Dravid added. "For us, it's really going to be important to build a squad that allows us to play two-three different combinations based on the conditions we see on a particular day."