Well, well, well. The Shubman Gill ‘axe’ story is getting out of hand. Earlier today, the 26-year-old wasn’t included in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2026. Despite being named deputy to Suryakumar Yadav just 3 months ago, Gill has been dropped.
It’s been learnt that Suryakumar and Gautam Gambhir didn’t inform Gill about his exclusion beforehand, and he got to know about the decision just moments before the squad was announced at the Wankhede Stadium.
But it turns out that a decision on Gill was already taken on December 17, the day of the India vs South Africa 4th T20I in Lucknow. Gill, who had injured his toe during training on the eve of the Lucknow T20I, wasn’t going to play, but the smog didn’t let the game go ahead.
Shubman Gill wanted to play in Ahmedabad
The medical team feared that Gill had sustained a hairline fracture, but the scans suggested it was merely a bruise. According to PTI, Gill wanted to play in Ahmedabad on December 19 and, after taking a couple of painkillers, could’ve taken the field.
But Gambhir and Suryakumar had already made the decision to move on from Gill and bring Sanju Samson back as opener. That’s why Gill wasn’t played in Ahmedabad. Instead, Samson featured and even took the glove. This proved to be a sign of things to come, as Jitesh Sharma, like Gill, has been excluded from India’s squad for the T20 World Cup.
Reports suggest that Gambhir and Suryakumar were too keen on bringing Gill back into the T20I team. But the selectors, with the aspiration of making Gill an all-format captain, included him irrespective. After the experiment failed, Gill was dropped just one series before the T20 World Cup began.
“If making him vice-captain for the Asia Cup riding on his England Test heroics was a wrong move, as Sanju (Samson) had done nothing wrong, the move to drop him just five games before the start of the T20 World Cup indicates that it is more of a course correction done by Agarkar’s panel. And the decision has more footprints of the head coach, who’s actually not known for maintaining continuity,” a former national selector told PTI.
India squad for T20 World Cup 2026
Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel (vc), Rinku Singh
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