On Saturday, when BCCI selectors and Indian T20I captain Surya Kumar Yadav came to announce the team, no one would have thought that Shubman Gill, who has been announced as the Vice Captain of the T20I set up just four months ago, would get dropped from the World Cup squad. Ajit Agarkar and co. who had shown tremendous faith in Shubman Gill and the team planned to use him as an anchor at the opening slot, dropped from the T20I World Cup squad.
Now, a question arises that if Team India needed Shubman Gill and was fitting into the combination for four months, then suddenly why combination become a point?
Addressing the issue, Agarkar said, “Perhaps short of a few runs at the moment. Unfortunately, he missed out on the last World Cup as well because we went with a different combination. But it's the combinations more than anything else.”
What went wrong for Shubman Gill?
Shubman Gill is one of the consistent IPL openers who made runs in every other season. The Indian team also wanted to project him as a batter, like the one the Gujarat Titans get. Before Shubman Gill’s inclusion, Indian management played with a different philosophy, straightaway and fearlessly. Then Indian team felt the need for an anchor at the top, and Shubman Gill started to play ahead of everyone.
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In the Indian T20I setup, Sanju and Jitesh were the two wicketkeepers whom India picked in every series. Now, when Gill started to open, Sanju, who is a top-order batter, had to play in the lower order, and that does not help. The management started experimenting with Jitesh Sharma, which automatically shut down the option to go with an extra all-rounder in the middle and sometimes that shook the entire planning.
Gill got almost 17 innings before his exclusion from the squad, and he failed to deliver a single fifty in this span. He was just staying in the crease for 27.7 minutes on average. Early wickets slow start stopped India’s middle order from exploiting the opponent bowlers. Selectors might have taken a call on the basis of that.
Will wild card entries Ishan Kishan and Rinku Singh all set to help the combination?
If India needed a replacement for Gill, Sanju was always a viable option waiting in the dugout. Sanju had been a regular player in the starting XI before Gill's sudden inclusion, so opting for him is a sensible choice. After a stellar season in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the winning captain of Jharkhand received his well-deserved opportunity. Ishan Kishan joined the team at the last moment, along with Rinku Singh, to fulfil the roles of both Jitesh Sharma and Shubman Gill. The wicket-keeper batter concluded the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as the highest run scorer, with 517 runs. Rinku Singh came into the squad as a backup finisher to fill the space of Jitesh Sharma.
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It clearly showed Gill’s exclusion is a message about the management’s approach. The Indian ‘team combination’ will maintain the fearless approach without stopping.
Indian squad for T20 World Cup
Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (WK), Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan (WK), Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.
