 "Chief selector Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir along with Indian batting star and Test captain Shubman Gill at a training session in England. PTI")
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is set to end the drama surrounding India’s squad for the ACC Asia Cup that is set to take place in the UAE next month. The board, after all, confirmed the timing for Tuesday’s press conference, which will get underway at 1.30 pm IST and will be attended by captain Suryakumar Yadav and chief selector Ajit Agarkar, on Monday. There’s a big question mark over Shubman Gill’s participation in next month’s event.
Gill, recently appointed India Test captain, hasn’t been a regular member of India’s T20 setup in recent months. The 25-year-old, however, had an excellent Indian Premier League season with the bat and a red-hot run in the recent five-match Test series in England, making it tough for the selectors to overlook him for next month’s assignment – where India could potentially face arch-rivals Pakistan thrice.
Difficult to drop Sanju, Abhishek and other India T20 regulars
According to a report on The Times of India, both head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Agarkar are “huge fans” of Gill’s batting but even that might not be enough for him to find a place in the T20I team that already has a settled look in the build-up to next year’s T20 World Cup. Especially with Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma forming a successful opening pair and Tilak Varma, skipper Surya and Hardik Pandya coming in next.
“Gill is a terrific batsman, all the selectors and head coach Gautam Gambhir are huge fans of his batting, and he is rated almost as highly as Virat Kohli in India’s cricket circles in terms of potential. However, he doesn’t fit into the T20 scheme of things right now.
“Presently, the idea is to persist with ‘keeper-bat Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma as openers, with Tilak Varma coming in at No. 3 and skipper Suryakumar at No. 4. If you see, Abhishek and Varma are rated as the No. 1 and No. 2 batters in T20Is in the ICC rankings currently. How can you drop them?” a BCCI source told the newspaper.
Team India have enjoyed a dominant run in the shortest format, winning 28 out of 31 games since the start of last year – including a couple of Super Over wins – and losing just three. And it’s been the aforementioned combination that has been at the heart of India’s batting following India’s victory at the T20 World Cup under Rohit Sharma’s leadership last year.