Shubman Gill’s role for the Indian T20I team has been a topic of hot conversation for several months now, as he bounced in and out of the setup either side of the T20 World Cup. As he sits near the top of the Orange Cap race and leads Gujarat Titans to a second consecutive playoff appearance in the IPL, his name has been touted for the T20I setup yet again.
However, the opening role in the T20 team is one which is hotly contested, with five or six terrific candidates making their case to take one of the minimal spots to fight for in the team proper. Gill would be unfortunate to miss out given the quality of cricket he can produce, but his roadblocks have always been the competition rather than any massive deficiency of his own.
Ravichandran Ashwin, speaking on his YouTube channel, made a point about how the opening dilemma extends beyond Gill. With Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as the incumbents, even players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul would find it tough to crack the team, and that’s without considering players like Virat Kohli putting up strong numbers but not in the running as well.
“You think Virat Kohli doesn’t deserve to be there? He is doing so well, but maybe it’s lucky for the Indian cricket that he has retired,” said Ashwin. “Otherwise, he would also have been in this conundrum. Yashasvi Jaiswal hasn’t done that well this IPL, but last year, he was a wonderful T20 player. We do not talk about him. There are so many contenders for opening.”
Vaibahv Sooryavanshi another big roadblock for Gill
It seemed as if Gill had earned the nod ahead of Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan heading into the World Cup, before a last-minute 180 saw him removed from the plans as Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar subscribed to a game model which would have aggressors and six-hitters right the way through the lineup.
What this means is that someone even like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, lighting up the scene at 15 years old, is in the reckoning, making things even tougher – particularly considering Gill is a fixture as captain in the two longer formats of the game.
“A small kid has a strike rate of 220. He is special, maybe more special than Gill. Sanju Samson did well at the T20 World Cup, and nobody can drop him,” Ashwin said regarding the roadblocks in Gill’s way.
“Abhishek Sharma has been doing great for SRH. See, with the potential that Shubman Gill has, he can do even better. Shubman Gill’s name will be there in any national T20 team in the world. It is quite unfortunate, and also fortunate in many ways, that Indian cricket is blessed,” he stated.
It’s certainly a problem of plenty, if it is a problem at all – India’s depth of talent meant that even the daunting task of replacing Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli at the top was fairly seamless, with the men in blue being crowned champions in back to back editions of the T20 World Cup.
