As the Test & ODI captain comes to terms with his recent axing from the World Cup squad, questions swirl around whether it was really necessary to induct him in an already-strong lineup. Perhaps, the whole unsavoury saga could have been avoided…Five months ago, the world was a beautiful place for Shubman Gill. All that he touched turned into gold. He scored 754 runs in the Test series against England, was pitchforked to the Test and ODI captaincy and was even made vice-captain in the T20 format.At the end of the year, though, the stylish 26-year-old is walking a lonely path. T20s are the flavour of the season but Gill, who has been projected as the new pin-up face of Indian cricket, will suddenly be out of work during a World Cup at home that’s going to rule the head and heart of cricket fans over the next couple of months.
After suffering a serious neck strain during the South Africa Test series, Gill ran against time to be fit for the T20I leg of the series. He might have got the hint that he needed to prove himself in T20Is all over again to hold on to his India place. But scores of 4, 0 and 28 in the first three games, followed by a toe injury, finished his hopes of hanging on to his spot. Rejection in T20Is is nothing new to Gill — despite being one of the leading IPL players, he was kept out of the 2024 T20 World Cup that India went on to win. It was a major disappointment and he may have been looking to make amends since.As Gill tries to deal with this recent humiliation, it begs the question — was it really necessary to try and fit him into a system that was not broken in the first place? Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson were batting like a dream as openers in T20Is. Also, one need not be a cricket analyst to understand that Yashasvi Jaiswal is a more explosive T20 batter than Gill. Still, the Indian cricket hierarchy felt it was necessary to find a new all-format leadership face and that’s why Gill was not only brought back but given the vice-captaincy too.
WV Raman, a former India batter who coached the women’s team, feels that is where the decision-makers missed a trick. “Gill hasn’t been dropped for any significant fault of his. Just that the players around him are more explosive than him, a quality that is essential in modern-day T20 cricket. In an imaginary scenario, it is almost like choosing K Srikkanth over Sunil Gavaskar for the T20 format, knowing full well who the better batter in the format actually could be. That’s why I was wondering why it was necessary to make him the T20 vice-captain at that stage, when so many others fit the T20 bill so well,” Raman told TOI.Prior to the England Tests, Gill had worked on his batting technique, whereby his bat was coming down a lot straighter than it was doing during the Australia series or before that. There’s a school of thought that believes the tweak in technique restricted him a little while playing the kind of horizontal bat shots required in T20Is. While Gill became a much tighter Test batter, as we saw in England, his range of shots in T20 cricket took a hit. The fact that Gill’s career strike-rate of 138.59 in T20Is has come down to 127.65 in the last 10 T20Is adds credence to the theory.But Raman doesn’t buy the idea completely. “Rohit Sharma plays with a straight bat, but does that restrict his hitting? Sometimes a straight bat opens up more scoring options even in T20 cricket. It is more about who you are as a player and we have to admit that some of the others around him are naturally more explosive,” he said.
Where does that leave Gill the player and captain in the other two formats? If sources are to be believed, the star right-hander wasn’t told until just before the selection meeting that he would be dropped. For a player of his stature, that’s probably not the best since Gill will be working with the same coaching staff and selection committee in the days to come. After showing so much faith, this sudden snub for a talent like Gill may well bring in a sense of insecurity for the player. He is well within his right to ask why captain Suryakumar Yadav, whose batting average is 13.62 in 2025, is getting a look-in ahead of him.Raman feels “what’s done is done” and it is crucial that Gill tries to insulate himself from the toxicity that is swirling around him. “If I was his coach, I would have told him that there is no place for emotion in a player’s life. It is a decision that has been taken with the team composition in mind and Gill should not think for a second that he has become a lesser player,” Raman said.It’s for Gill to understand that there’s life beyond the glitter of T20 cricket and he can still be India’s best batter in the other two formats.
