India pay heavy price in push to make Shubman Gill poster-boy of this generation; Sanju Samson collateral damage

[rollingstoned]

India pay heavy price in push to make Shubman Gill poster-boy of this generation; Sanju Samson collateral damage

Shubman Gill has struggled in T20Is after his return, averaging 21.92 in 15 innings since September. Did the decision makers bite more than they could chew?

Haste makes waste. It’s one of those old-fashioned, old-world adages that means exactly what it says – don’t rush into things without thought and logic, because the consequences can be disastrous.

 

 

India's Shubman Gill walks back after his dismissal(PTI)

 

‘Disaster’ is perhaps too strong a word to describe Shubman Gill’s comeback to international 20-over cricket, but there is no denying the fact that the new face of Indian cricket is struggling to justify his recall to the shortest format after 13 and a half months on the outer. In their overwhelming desire to anoint the eminently marketable 26-year-old as the new face of Indian cricket, the decision-makers who have the greatest say in selection matters might have sold themselves, Gill and Indian cricket short – and not necessarily in that order.

 

 

Every generation needs a rallying force, a leader around whom the core revolves. Historically, Indian cricket has been fortunate to unearth such unifying entities. In the last two decades alone – and even before that, there are numerous examples – the poster boys have been Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, in that chronological order. Gill is now the chosen one, but those in the corridors of power seem to have bitten off more than they can chew.

Thursday’s first-ball duck in the second of five Twenty20 Internationals against South Africa in New Chandigarh was the latest of Gill’s misadventures in country vs country T20s. Since being brought back into the T20 firmament in September, Gill has been a singular disappointment. Fifteen innings in three different countries against seven teams have produced a measly 263 runs at an average of 21.92; his strike-rate of 115.56 is less than acceptable but most worryingly, Gill hasn’t looked the part.

Form, they say, is temporary and class is permanent, and there is no disputing another of those long-standing truisms. Which is precisely why Gill’s terrible T20 form is hard to explain. During this period, he has amassed runs in Test cricket, at No. 4, but his limited-overs record has left a lot to be desired. Admittedly, he has only figured in three One-Day Internationals, but those have produced a meagre 43 runs with a highest of 24 in Australia, where he announced himself as one for the future with polished efforts of 45 and 35 not out during India’s wonderful victory at the MCG in December 2020.

 

Gill was ‘rested’ from the T20 format after the tour of Sri Lanka in July 2024, in Gautam Gambhir’s first outing as the new head coach. But once Rohit announced his retirement from Test cricket this May, the right-hander from Punjab was identified as the man to take the national team into the future. Dramatically, he was appointed the Test captain; within months, the same status was conferred on him in the 50-over setup while in the T20 iteration, he was brought back as Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy. The message was loud and clear – it was only a matter of time before Gill became the all-format skipper, following in the footsteps of Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit.

Gill’s return to the T20 version came at a heavy cost, with the successful opening tandem of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson split to accommodate the captain-in-waiting. Samson was shunted down the order before being omitted from the XI altogether, collateral damage in the push to make Gill the pre-eminent cricketer of his generation. Apart from a string of failures against England at home in January, Samson had done precious little wrong; indeed, in 33 days in October-November last year, he smashed three T20I hundreds in five innings but forced to bat out off position so that Gill could be accommodated at the top of the order, he floundered and failed to such an extent that he surrendered his place to Jitesh Sharma. If the senior batter from Kerala feels hard done by, it isn’t without justification, and particularly so given that Gill has shown no signs of justifying the undiluted show of faith from Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar.

How does the management group handle this Gill conundrum, considering they have placed all their eggs in his basket? It's no secret that there clearly are different yardsticks for different players within the Indian cricketing firmament. The levels of patience vary depending on who the flavour of the season is and Gill, indisputably, is the most overwhelming current flavour. But by saddling him with so much responsibility (burden?) so quickly, no one is doing him any favours. Gill has been constantly on the move since the Test series in England in the summer, and has himself admitted to mental fatigue more than physical tiredness. It’s possible that the neck spasms that kept him out of action for nearly four weeks from the second week of November are a consequence of constant travel and one high-stakes game after another compressed in a very limited timeframe.

Gill is too skilled not to shed this lean trot sooner rather than later, but are India doing the right thing by him? And by the team? To paraphrase Gambhir, those are questions 140 crore Indians are awaiting answers to.

[tapandrun]

too skilled  .... Too Classy .....

 

There is another player who is attributed to same thing...... Babar Azam.....

Till now Gill only looked like a cheap copy of Babar Azam. 

[putrevus]

How many people who want Gill to be gone now wanted Samson to be gone after England series. Jaiswal was flavor of the day then.

[tapandrun]

3 minutes ago, putrevus said:

How many people who want Gill to be gone now wanted Samson to be gone after England series. Jaiswal was flavor of the day then.

Sanju has issues vs v.high pace not high pace. Any 1would struggle vs Jofrra and Wood going full tilt. After 1st game in IPL too Jofrra was unhitable.

Not many Ind batters have taken down Joffra and wood. The t20i series vs Eng where Rohit and Kolhi were playing too, Ind batters struggled when they both were playing same game.

 

There is no case for jaiswal either in t20i opening slot wk has to open, the only guy in Ind who can open and a wk opener can be slotted for a pure batter in current form and nt much of sample size is Vaibhav. Else none of the opener are doing any better than sajnu in opening slot.

Ind does not have a t20i wk batter so any1 picked has to open to maximize them and ask then to maximize the pp even if then have to take risk. 

 

Putting Gill to open is asking other opener to take extra risk 1st gill does not have the game 2nd he is been asked to work as anchor. 

Gill has only 2 shots flick off pads vs pace and sweep vs spin thats it. in PP opp. bowlers can tie him with bowling out side off not giving anything on pads. And as the bowlers know gill is not going to try to hit them over the inner circle they can bowl to the off-stump line according to filed placement and  even i f he is able to bisect the  gap they can chase it down and if not chased its a 4 and then they can adjust the field again.

 

Every good t20i team has a wk opening for them and off-spin is bowled by a proper batter why is Ind doing it other way around do they have better openers than any1 else or sundar is best off-spinner in the world that no one is able to read.

 

 

 

[tapandrun]

BBL -PS is making Finn Allen keep wkt (yes he can wk), but see what team is doing they need wk to open.

Allen is OS player and a opener and the other opener is Marsh so they asked Allen to keep. WK has to open in t20 unless they are Pooran, Kalsen, buttler in many ways best batter in the side. 

Edited December 14, 2025 by tapandrun

[Lord]

5 hours ago, putrevus said:

How many people who want Gill to be gone now wanted Samson to be gone after England series. Jaiswal was flavor of the day then.

 

not many. Samson is a wk and had scored tons one series before. 

[cowboysfan]

On 12/13/2025 at 11:21 PM, tapandrun said:

too skilled  .... Too Classy .....

 

There is another player who is attributed to same thing...... Babar Azam.....

Till now Gill only looked like a cheap copy of Babar Azam. 

am I the only one seeing fatal flaws in Gill?he is a terrible front foot plonker and now he is not even moving his feet a inch and just playing with cement feet with predictable results. 

[vvvslaxman]

4 hours ago, Lord said:

 

not many. Samson is a wk and had scored tons one series before. 

 

He was following the template. He never tried to statpad. It was working just fine.

[Sean Bradley]

Shubhman Gul

[putrevus]

12 hours ago, Lord said:

 

not many. Samson is a wk and had scored tons one series before. 

He did not cross single figures in one whole series against England while playing as opener. Other than his SA series, he has done nothing great.He is very inconsistent and below par for most part.

 

That SA series is looking more an abberation than norm. Tilak yesterday was unable to even rotate strike when there was zero pressure, he too scored two hundreds in that SA series.

 

Not saying Gill is great or needs to be in the team.

Edited December 15, 2025 by putrevus

[deepdynamo]

33 minutes ago, putrevus said:

He did not cross single figures in one whole series against England while playing as opener. Other than his SA series, he has done nothing great.He is very inconsistent and below par for most part.

 

That SA series is looking more an abberation than norm. Tilak yesterday was unable to even rotate strike when there was zero pressure, he too scored two hundreds in that SA series.

 

Not saying Gill is great or needs to be in the team.

 

Samson vs Eng didn't fire but he was being caught on the boundary playing the pull shot ( maybe Archer/Wood was too hot in that seris) but was not deliberately trying to play slow. The problem with Gill is that his maximum uptick is 60(40) kind of inning while holding one end. That's the best Gill can do. On the otherhand Samson, on his day, can win you a game single handly. Also, not to forget he wicket keep so he frees up one spot in the middle. 

[putrevus]

1 hour ago, deepdynamo said:

 

Samson vs Eng didn't fire but he was being caught on the boundary playing the pull shot ( maybe Archer/Wood was too hot in that seris) but was not deliberately trying to play slow. The problem with Gill is that his maximum uptick is 60(40) kind of inning while holding one end. That's the best Gill can do. On the otherhand Samson, on his day, can win you a game single handly. Also, not to forget he wicket keep so he frees up one spot in the middle. 

I don't think you will see that on his day vs first choice international bowling attacks. That is my personal opinion.

 

But one thing bringing him in place of Gill will do is to allow one more batsman in middle order or another allrounder.

 

Other WK Jitesh is not that great either. So playing Samson makes team more balanced for sure.

Edited December 15, 2025 by putrevus

[vvvslaxman]

Damn they have influenced copilot  as well :) It is not creating image mocking GIll saying it is an insult.

[Lord]

5 hours ago, putrevus said:

He did not cross single figures in one whole series against England while playing as opener. Other than his SA series, he has done nothing great.He is very inconsistent and below par for most part.

 

That SA series is looking more an abberation than norm. Tilak yesterday was unable to even rotate strike when there was zero pressure, he too scored two hundreds in that SA series.

 

Not saying Gill is great or needs to be in the team.

 

One bad series doesn't mean much. Had a bumper series in SA, why are you ignoring that? That was better than what Gill did all career.

 

In T20 big hitting ability is more ability than strike rotation. Tilak won Asia Cup final and a close game v Eng too. 

 

Gill can neither bowl nor bat attackingly. He has no place

[Chaos]

Wahhh @Lord u gained widsom 

[putrevus]

18 hours ago, Lord said:

 

One bad series doesn't mean much. Had a bumper series in SA, why are you ignoring that? That was better than what Gill did all career.

 

In T20 big hitting ability is more ability than strike rotation. Tilak won Asia Cup final and a close game v Eng too. 

 

Gill can neither bowl nor bat attackingly. He has no place

That bumper series against SA is the reason why he is the squad. I just am not sold on him being a viable player in t20 world cup.

 

I don't want Gill in the squad either, but blame Gambhir and Agarkar for it.They have force fed Gill in all formats.Was there any need to make him Vice captain.Now you have captain and vice captain who need to be kicked out.

[vvvslaxman]

edit

Edited December 16, 2025 by vvvslaxman

[Lord]

5 hours ago, putrevus said:

That bumper series against SA is the reason why he is the squad. I just am not sold on him being a viable player in t20 world cup.

 

I don't want Gill in the squad either, but blame Gambhir and Agarkar for it.They have force fed Gill in all formats.Was there any need to make him Vice captain.Now you have captain and vice captain who need to be kicked out.

 

Then who do you want? Its easy to reject everyone.

 

As a keeper opener he lends balance and is much better option than Gill and Jitesh combo

[Ultimate_Game]

26 minutes ago, Lord said:

 

Then who do you want? Its easy to reject everyone.

 

As a keeper opener he lends balance and is much better option than Gill and Jitesh combo

 

We only have two options...

 

Option 1 - Replace Gill with Jaiswal: This provides an upgrade at the opening slot and now we're no longer dependent solely on Abhishek to provide a quick start. Both Abhishek and Jaiswal can score quick runs in the PP. But in this case Jitesh will remain the wk as Samson lower down the order is useless.

 

Option 2 - Replace Gill with Samson: This will allow us to have a proper batter in the lower order and we can replace Jitesh with Rinku Singh or Riyan Parag. I prefer Rinku and would like to see Parag replace another specialist bowler.

 

Ideally even SKY needs to be replaced with Iyer so we have a solid top 4. My ideal playing XI would be:

 

Abhishek

Samson (wk)

Tilak (or Sai)

Iyer (c)

Axar

Rinku

Pandya (vc)

Parag/Dube (turning or flattish pitches pick Parag and on seam friendly pitches pick Dube)

Arshdeep

Bumrah

Varun C

 

3 pacers in Bumrah, Arshdeep and Pandya. And spin handled by Varun C, Axar and Abhishek. Dube or Parag to provide another 2 overs depending on who plays.

 

Note that there's no Kuldeep who makes the tail longer and TBH is not a difference maker in T20s. There's no Gill and no SKY. This team has proper batting depth till 8. If you want to play Jaiswal then Samson goes away and you need to replace Rinku with Jitesh. Rest of the team remains the same.

[putrevus]

1 hour ago, Lord said:

 

Then who do you want? Its easy to reject everyone.

 

As a keeper opener he lends balance and is much better option than Gill and Jitesh combo

He gives better balance but I don't think he is going to be difference.Jaiswal should have been given some chances too.

Edited December 16, 2025 by putrevus