Will IPL help Gill, Jaiswal win back India T20I spots?

The young top-order batters may not be automatic picks as India have revamped their T20 template

- Rasesh Mandani

MUMBAI: The last nine months saw Indian cricket's trophy cabinet enriched with two global titles. The team showed versatility and depth by winning the ODI Champions Trophy on sluggish pitches in Dubai earlier this month, and prevailed on surfaces of uneven bounce in USA and slow tracks in the West Indies to lift the 2024 T20 World Cup. But a renaissance of sorts on the batting front came in the less glorified bilateral T20Is on true batting pitches. Where India were hitherto reluctant to hit top gear, they amassed 283 and 297-run totals in 2024 and scored the most sixes (23) in a calendar year.

The chief architects of this transformation were young left-handers Abhishek Sharma (24), and Tilak Varma (22), and the gifted Sanju Samson, who finally realised his potential. With the T20 World Cup slated next year at home, expect these batters to continue pushing the envelope. If new entrants want to displace them, the only way is to match their intent quotient.

Foremost in the queue would be Yashasvi Jaiswal, 23, and Shubman Gill, 25. When the T20I team was plundering runs, the two rising stars, also seen as future all-format players, had been toughing it out in India's busy Test season.