Cricket-India’s Gill doubtful for Australia match due to dengue fever

CHENNAI (Reuters) -India’s Shubman Gill has got dengue fever but coach Rahul Dravid said the in-form opener has not yet been ruled out of their World Cup opener against Australia on Sunday.

Gill is the leading run-scorer in one-day internationals this year and the 24-year-old has forged a formidable opening partnership with skipper Rohit Sharma.

“He is certainly feeling better today than he was yesterday, so that’s a positive, but the medical team is monitoring him on a day-to-day basis,” Dravid told reporters on Friday.

“We’ve got 36 hours to go, so we’ll see how that goes.

“We’ll see whatever decision they take. But yes, he’s feeling a little bit better today than he was yesterday.”

Gill has scored 1230 runs at an average of 72.35 this year and his last four innings include two centuries and a half-century.

Should he miss Sunday’s match against five-time champions Australia, wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan is likely to forge a left-right opening combination with Rohit even though KL Rahul also remains an option for the tournament hosts.

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty and Shrivathsa Sridhar; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Toby Davis)

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