BCCI’s secretary Devajit Saikia has mentioned India’s team for the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup again, and he has also stated that Axar Patel will be the vice-captain of the team. By that, the decision of Shubman Gill, who is the captain of the Tests and ODIs for India, being removed from the T20I squad less than 50 days before the start of the mega event was also confirmed. Gill’s exclusion closed a period of speculation about whether his return had disturbed the set opening combination of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. Even though he scored only 291 runs in 15 innings with an average of 24.25 and a strike rate of 137.26, many people thought that his place in the squad was certain until the last-minute twist of fate happened on Saturday.
On Sunday, IANS was informed by several sources familiar with the matter that the decision to eliminate Gill, expected to be the leader in all formats, was ‘tough but necessary’ for the team’s success at the competition, where the Suryakumar Yadav-led side is coming in as defending champions.
“It was a tough but necessary decision to leave out Gill. It was made in the interest of the team. The management of the T20I team had realized some time ago that their plan including Gill was not working and it was just a matter of when they would change it and this course correction was done on the squad selection day,” sources said.
The agency inferred that there was a strong desire in the think-tank to get Samson back to the opening slot and reinstatement of Rinku Singh which took place around the abandoned T20I fog against South Africa in Lucknow, where the previous day Gill had suffered a toe injury while practicing batting.
The decision to cut Gill, who once again would miss out on playing in the T20 World Cup, was a very pragmatic one and it has received mostly positive feedback but at the same time it carries a sharper message: no player is guaranteed to keep on getting the support of the selectors if he is not performing well, and that the selectors will always support combinations they believe to offer the least chance of losing a global trophy.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav has also not been in top form like Gill – scoring only 244 runs in his last 22 innings and not making even one fifty. But sources said it was never on cards to change a captain so near to the mega event. “Nobody was going to drop a captain in a World Cup selection meeting. That would have made for a foolish look,” the sources said.
After more than one day, the announcement of Patel’s rise as vice-captain and Gill’s non-selection still causes a stir. However, it is important to keep in mind that in the last three ICC men’s events India has lost just one game and has two titles to its name – 2024 T20 World Cup and 2025 Champions Trophy. The countdown to 2026 has begun and the focus will be on how Yadav and his team will prepare for India to defend their T20 World Cup title.
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