Why Shubman Gill doesn’t deserve a place in India’s T20 side

Dubai: Shubman Gill has no place in this Indian T20 side.

Yes, you read that right. True, he has been appointed vice-captain and is the blue-eyed boy of Indian cricket, but those factors do not hide the opener’s inability to play fearless cricket in the Powerplay overs, leading to repeated failures in the shorter white-ball format.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love watching the elegant right-hander play. He has played quite a few sublime innings in white-ball cricket and at a cracking pace too. But, from what I have seen of his performances so far Down Under, it does seem an injustice to the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh and even Sanju Samson — all with proven T20 credentials — who are either warming the bench or playing in positions they are clearly not comfortable.

Gill’s struggles in T20Is have been exacerbated by the scintillating batting of his opening partner Abhishek Sharma. While the Asia Cup win pushed Gill’s frailties under the carpet, he has been thoroughly exposed in bowler-friendly conditions in Australia.

In the third T20I against Australia in Hobart on Saturday, he fell for 15 runs off 12 deliveries, trapped LBW by Nathan Ellis inside the Powerplay. Before that, he had managed just five runs in the second T20I, where India lost by four wickets, while the first game was washed out due to rain.

India’s Test and ODI skipper, who made his T20I comeback at the Asia Cup in September after nearly a year, has struggled ever since, managing just 184 runs in 10 innings at an average of 23 and a strike rate of 146 with a best score of 47.

And before the T20 series began, he also failed to make an impact in the three-match ODI series against Australia. In his first assignment as ODI skipper, replacing the veteran batter Rohit Sharma, Gill only managed to score 43 runs in three innings at an average of 14.33.

The right-hander has always been susceptible to the incoming delivery, a chink that has been exploited to the full by the Aussie bowlers. His inability to up the ante in the first six overs has put immense pressure on his friend and opening partner Abhishek, who, in stark contrast, unleashes from the first ball he faces.

Gill’s conservative approach and lack of runs haven’t gone down well with critics and fans alike, who believe it is high time he makes way for other — more deserving — batters in the slam-bang format of the game. And with the 2026 T20 World Cup just round the corner, they might well have a case.