India vs Pakistan: ‘Shubman Gill 99 per cent available’ for World Cup clash, says Rohit Sharma

Shubman Gill’s chances of making his maiden ICC World Cup appearance on Sunday appear strong, with India skipper Rohit Sharma saying he has a “99 per cent” chance of featuring in the blockbuster match against Pakistan. World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table Rising star Gill has had a superb run with the bat across formats this year and has cemented himself as Rohit’s first-choice opening partner. Gill, however, ended up missing the first two matches of the tournament, against Australia and Afghanistan respectively, due to a bout of dengue and even had to be taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure after his platelet count started to drop.

The 23-year-old has since recovered from the illness since and was seen training at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium ahead of the highly-anticipated match against arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday. “Shubman Gill is 99 per cent available, we will see tomorrow,” India skipper Rohit told reporters in Ahmedabad on the eve of the match. **Read | India vs Pakistan World Cup rivalry in numbers** As for India’s lineup for the big game, whether they will bring Ravichandran Ashwin back into the lineup or not, Rohit refused to devulged too much about the team combination, saying that the final selection would be made “I don’t know, honestly. I don’t know. I still haven’t looked at the pitch yet, but we are ready for whatever combination we want to play. “But if the requirement is there for us to play three spinners, we will play three spinners,” Rohit said. **Read | Recap of Pakistan’s seven World Cup defeats against India** Ashwin, who only recently made his comeback into the ODI fold, had played an important role in India’s victory over Australia in their World Cup opener in Chennai. The veteran off-spinner, however, was replaced by seam-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur in their next outing, against Afghanistan in Delhi. India have won each of their seven World Cup meetings with Pakistan since their first match in Sydney, 1992, and will look to make it 8-0 on Saturday. Read | 'There is always a first time', Babar confident PAK can end WC jinx vs IND Both teams enter the tournament with two wins in as many outings. While India defeated Australia and Afghanistan by six and eight wickets respectively, Pakistan began their campaign with an 81-run win against Netherlands before pulling off a record chase against Sri Lanka.