Suryakumar Yadav is less than a month away from turning 35, and the need to find his long-term replacement as India’s T20 captain prompted the decision-makers to include Test skipper Shubman Gill as his deputy for the upcoming Asia Cup.
It was the matter that consumed most of the time at Tuesday’s selection meeting and head coach Gautam Gambhir, who joined online, was also of the view that India needs to groom someone for the future and Gill, who turns 26 next month, was the most eligible candidate.
With the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee picking Gill in the T20 squad, for the first time this year, it seems likely that the Test captain, who had a dream outing on the recent England tour, will feature in the playing XI during the tournament to be played in the UAE from September 9-28.
Surya and Agarkar indicated, in no uncertain terms, that Gill was always part of the first-choice Indian T20 side.
“He was the vice-captain when we played in Sri Lanka (last year). But after that, he was busy with Test cricket,” the T20 captain stressed.
Gill missed the T20I series in South Africa in November last year as he was preparing for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. He later sat out the home T20 series against England due to a back spasm. The committee felt that Gill was asked to choose his games wisely, and had he travelled to South Africa and played at home, he would have continued as the vice-captain.
The mountain of runs he piled up, along with the leadership acumen he showed, in England made him an irresistible option as he is now looked upon as the torchbearer of Indian batting in the post-Virat Kohli-Rohit Sharma era.
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“We obviously see some leadership qualities in him, and his form in England was what we were hoping for. (He) exceeded all our expectations, which is a great sign when there’s so much pressure as captain,” Agarkar reasoned.
Not the first choice
Gill wasn’t the first choice initially and some people felt that Axar Patel should continue the role of vice-captaincy. But the overall mood at the selection meeting was that it’s better to invest in a player who is likely to serve Indian cricket for long. The panel couldn’t find any other candidate whom they can hand over responsibility for the next five years. As Gill is already leading in Test cricket, the selectors felt it was a right time to prepare him to take over from Surya some time in the future. As a result, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who also impressed on the England tour and has had an impressive start to his international career, had to miss out.
With Gill’s inclusion, the selectors and team management will now have to chalk out the top order as Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma had formed a formidable opening partnership.
Squad:
Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Jitesh Sharma, Shivam Dube, Arshdeep Singh, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav.
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- Standbys: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal.
