Gill arrives in Bhubaneswar on Sunday night, all set for comeback

Shubman Gill arrived in Bhubaneswar all fired up. The India T20I vice-captain - the full-time captain in Tests and ODIs otherwise - touched down in the State Capital around 9 pm after a long day of travel. He is set for a comeback of sorts in international cricket, having missed the two Tests and three ODIs against the touring South African side. As Gautam Gambhir said, he is hungry to go.

Gill was initially a conditional selection for the five-match Twenty20 series starting in Cuttack on December 9. While announcing the T20I squad recently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had said Gill availability is "Subject to fitness clearance from BCCI COE."

It has now turned out that Gill has totally recovered from the neck injury that he suffered during the first Test against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata last month. And as reported by Cricbuzz on December 3, Gill regained fitness after spending a couple days at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru recently. Gill had batted and fielded at the CoE before obtaining the all-clear from the BCCI medical team.

That Gill is fully fit and ready for international action was confirmed by none other than Gambhir himself. "Yes, Shubman is ready to start. That's why he has been selected. He is fit, fine, and hungry to go," the India coach said after the third and final ODI in Visakhapatnam on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, most of the players arrived in Bhubaneswar for the match. Many members of the India and South Africa squads flew in from Visakhapatnam on a chartered flight on Sunday morning. Gill, however, arrived later since he was not part of the ODI squad.

Meanwhile, local media reported that Hardik Pandya had gone to Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, the venue of the match, on Sunday evening for a closed door practice. He was among the first to arrive in the city.