Having already missed the World Cup opener against Australia in Chennai on Sunday due to dengue fever, India opener Shubman Gill will remain unavailable for the side’s next match against Afghanistan here on October 11.

Accordingly, Gill will not travel to the national capital with the rest of the Indian team for the second match of the ODI World Cup and will stay in Chennai, the BCCI confirmed in a statement on Monday.

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“Team India batter Shubman Gill will not be travelling with the team to Delhi on 9th October 2023. The opening batter who missed the team’s first fixture in the ICC men’s cricket World Cup 2023 against Australia in Chennai is set to miss the team’s next fixture against Afghanistan in Delhi on October 11,” BCCI’s press release stated.

As reported by The Statesman on Saturday, the Mohali boy is likely to miss both the opening games, and will continue to be under the cricket board’s medical team’s monitoring.

In such a scenario, the big question is can the right-handed opener recover on time for India’s third game on October 14 against arch-rivals Pakistan at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

In Gill’s absence, wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan was on Sunday promoted to open the innings in the company of skipper Rohit Sharma in the opening game against Australia, that India won by six wickets.

However, the promotion did not materialize in terms of runs, as both Ishan and Rohit fell for ducks, before Shreyas Iyer also made the long walk back to the dressing room without opening his account. Trailing at 2 for 3, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul slammed calculative half centuries to forge a massive 165-run fourth wicket stand, and ensured India’s win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, last evening.

The 24-year-old Gill has been in red-hot form over the past year, amassing an impressive tally of 1230 runs, inclusive of five ODI centuries. He also slammed a magnificent double ton against New Zealand earlier this year. In the run-up to the World Cup, Gill has shown tremendous improvement with the bat, and emerged the top run-getter with 302 runs during the recently-held Asia Cup and followed his impressive form in the three-game ODI series against Australia, in which he was a part of the initial couple of games in Mohali and Indore. In the last few innings, he has scores of 104, 74, 27 not out, 121, 19, 58 and 67 not out.

He also had his share of off-days with the willow during the West Indies tour, but never looked out of touch. Earlier this year, he emerged the leading run-scorer in the Indian Premier League (IPL) with 890 runs, representing the Gujarat Titans franchise.

After the game against Afghanistan, India will be hoping that the in-form opener returns to the Playing XI for the much-anticipated clash against Pakistan. In his two meetings against the highly-rated Pakistan bowling attack during the Asia Cup, Gill started off with an uncharacteristic 10 off 32 in the opening game, but came back strongly with a dominating 52-ball 58 when the two sides faced off in the Super Four stages.

Team India lands in Delhi

As far as the match against Afghanistan is concerned, the rest of the Indian team landed in the national capital on Monday afternoon, and is likely to hit the nets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.

Afghanistan, who lost their tournament opener to Bangladesh in Dharamsala on Saturday, are already in the city, and started training on Monday evening. Afghanistan gave an account of their readiness for the high profile tournament during the World Cup warmup game against Sri Lanka in Guwahati, and are expected to bounce back in their faceoff against the Indians.

Unlike the slow turner at Chepauk, where the Indian spinners dominated the proceedings with the trio of Ravindra Jadeja (3/28), Kuldeep Yadav (2/42) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/34) accounting for six Aussie wickets, the wicket at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium is expected to be a batting paradise.

The first World Cup game played at the ground between South Africa and Sri Lanka produced a total of 754 runs, with the Proteas posting a mammoth 428 for 5 in their 50 overs before restricting Sri Lanka for 326, to register a resounding 102-run win.

In the process, South Africa’s total surpassed Australia’s 417 for 7 against Afghanistan in 2015, as the highest team total in World Cup history.

Going by stats, fans in the national capital can expect another run-fest on Wednesday.