When India decided to appoint Suryakumar Yadav as their new T20I captain for the three-match series in Sri Lanka, most thought that the premier all-rounder of the side, Hardik Pandya would remain the vice-captain of the group. However, the selectors decided to go with young Shubman Gill as their new vice-captain.
When the selectors decided to rest their T20 World Cup-bound player for the five-match T20I series in Zimbabwe and picked up a young team, Shubman Gill was made the captain of the side, which displayed that he was on the radar of the selectors for the position.
India didn’t start well in the series with a defeat in the opening clash but made a fabulous return for the last four games to seal it with a 4-1 margin. One of the highlights of his leadership was how he kept belief in the players and used the bowlers pretty well in the middle.
‘Shubman Gill can improve a lot…’- Former RCB player
Shubman Gill didn’t have a good start in the recent season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), where he captained the Gujarat Titans (GT) for the very first time after they ended up as the champion side in their maiden season and later became the runners-up in the following year.
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Under the leadership of the opening batting, the Titans could register only five wins in 14 games, at a net run rate of -1.063, to finish in the eighth position in the points table.
They could make it to the playoffs of that edition, but their three back-to-back defeats in the last six games, including the two wash-outs didn’t allow them to get the success they hoped for.
Shubman Gill started the T20I career with the bat in a fabulous manner having scored 505 runs in 19 innings, at an average of just under 30 and a strike rate of nearly 140. He also celebrated three half-centuries and one fifty with the best score of an unbeaten 126-run knock.
When it comes to the T20s, the Punjab-born has clubbed 4398 runs in 140 innings, at an average of 36.65 with a strike rate of 136.71, shouldering on his 26 fifties and six hundred, with a best score of 129-run knock.
Dinesh Karthik, who was the captain of the 24-year-old during his early years in the IPL, felt that Shubman Gill had the potential to be a successful captain of the side, having been aware of how to handle the pressure.
‘He’s been around in international cricket for some time, and he knows how to handle pressure. So why not? He is a vice-captain, and I believe he has the potential.’ The Tamil Nadu-born expressed on Cricbuzz’s ‘Hey CB With DK’ show. ‘If he keeps working on his batting and the fact that he can improve a lot more as a captain over the years, he has the potential to do well as a skipper as well.’
In the recent Zimbabwe series, Gill finished as the top run-getter with 170 runs in five innings, at an average of 42.50 and a strike rate of 125.92, besides celebrating a couple of half-centuries and a best score of 66.
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The former RCB wicket-keeper batter noted that Gill wasn’t that bad in his maiden year as the captain of GT, and would need to work a little more on and off the field.
‘This year, he started for Gujarat (Titans), and he was not bad, but he knows that it’s a little bit of work to put in on and off the field, and he’ll be working towards that.’ Dinesh Karthik concluded. ‘The one thing about Shubman Gill is that he’s a really hardworking kid, and that is going to stand them in good stead for the future.’
Shubman Gill’s vice-captaincy assignment starts on July 27, when India locks horns with Sri Lanka at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy.
