The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has to proceed with caution. India’s Test and ODI captain, Shubman Gill, seems to be having a recurring neck injury. The sheer amount of cricket he’s been playing internationally, for Team, and domestically, for Punjab and Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), is taking a serious toll on his body.
Recurring neck injury
In 2025, Gill kept playing non-stop cricket. After the IPL, he went to England. Returned to play a home summer of Test cricket, during which he first injured his neck. He was ruled out of the South Africa Test series, which was one of the reasons why the Proteas claimed a historic 2-0 victory over India. Such was the severity of Gill’s neck injury that he had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days and needed 3 weeks to recover.
“I had a kind of disc bulge in my neck that was hitting my nerves. I had a bit of a spasm before the start of play that morning, and when I played the match, I strained my neck and the bulge hit the nerve, so I had to go to the hospital for a couple of days,” Gill had said back in December.
Upon returning, he played T20I and ODI cricket for India. Following up on some domestic matches for Punjab. Since he wasn’t selected for the T20 World Cup 2026, Gill had a bit of rest. His body needed that for an intense 2 months, where he was to lead GT in IPL 2026.
But just one match into the season, Gill injured his neck again. Rashid Khan had to sub in for him against the Rajasthan Royals on April 4. Surely that isn’t a great sign. Batters don’t really get injured so often. Which means something just isn’t right, and the BCCI has to handle Gill like they do Jasprit Bumrah.
“It’s much better,” Gill said after losing the toss against the Delhi Capitals. When asked about whether this injury was similar to his neck spasm against South Africa last year, Gill said, “It’s something similar.”
How BCCI can manage it
One can’t forget that he isn’t just India’s captain in two formats but one of their best batters as well. He’s an asset. Someone who’s expected to play for India for the next decade. BCCI needs to manage its workload. They did just the opposite last year, when he was pushed into the T20I setup.
Perhaps it’s best that he stays away from the shortest format for India, since it’s the one that teams play the most now. This will grant him more time to recover physically. Now, he’ll want to play T20Is. Of course, he’ll first have to outdo Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, or Sanju Samson.
But, even if he does, maybe the BCCI should tell him that they need him in the longer formats and advise against it. They might also tell him not to play domestic cricket, which the BCCI has made compulsory for centrally contracted players.
