It’s perhaps one of those convenient paradoxes; Yashasvi Jaiswal obliquely owes his international debut to Shubman Gill, yet it’s the latter who is, in a roundabout way, holding up the left-hander’s progress as an all-format powerhouse.

Ahead of the two-Test tour of the Caribbean in July 2023, Gill had almost exclusively opened the batting in each of his first 16 matches since his debut in Melbourne in December 2020 – the only time in 30 instances when he didn’t open was in the second innings of the Mumbai Test against New Zealand in December 2021, when he made a breezy 47 at No. 3.

With India opting to move on from Cheteshwar Pujara after the abortive World Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval in June, Gill put his hand up, requesting captain Rohit Sharma and head coach

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