Shubman Gill debate at the heart of India’s T20 vision

With plenty of aggressive batters in contention for the Asia Cup, indications are that Gill may have to wait out

- Rasesh Mandani

Having amassed 754 runs in his first Test series as India captain, Shubman Gill has been the talk of the town. With an average of 59.04 in ODI cricket, he's the captain-in-waiting in that format too. In T20I cricket, though, he's likely to be shown the queue.

Things can still change when Ajit Agarkar's selection committee formally meets on Tuesday to pick the Indian team for the T20 Asia Cup. “We'll see what happens in the meeting,” a key BCCI functionary said, indicating there may still be room for a discussion.

Gill's exclusion would come with the underlying message that the selectors want to stay invested with not just the personnel who helped register wins in the last four series, but also the new urgent direction of their cricket.

If Gill makes the team, it would have to be as an opener. If he doesn’t make the team, it’s to not disturb the Sanju Samson-Abhishek Sharma combination at the top.

Gill had captained in the series against Zimbabwe, which was immediately after the 2024 World Cup and before the series against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa and England that followed. But that was before chief selector Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir handpicked Suryakumar Yadav as captain, over Hardik Pandya.