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'That's What Happened With Shubman Gill': Sunil Gavaskar Explains Why 'Good Player' Was Left Out from India's T20 World Cup Squad

Sunil Gavaskar felt a problem of plenty and Shubman Gill’s ‘patchy’ performances in IPL 2024 led to selectors only considering him as a reserve player in India’s T20 World Cup squad. India named their 15-man squad on Tuesday to be led by Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya serving as his deputy. “That is the blessing that India has, they’ve got so many players. In fact, if you can make a second team, that team will also be capable of lifting this Cup with a bit of luck,” Gavaskar said. “So, sometimes that happens, sometimes you have to leave a good player out, that’s what seems to have happened with Gill. Again, his form in the last few games has been patchy. He started the IPL very well but the last few matches have been patchy which has cost GT victories. Gill scores, GT have been winning. He has not been scoring, they have not been winning,” he added.

Gill holds the record for the highest individual score by an Indian in T20Is with an unbeaten 126 against New Zealand at Ahmedabad.

India Squad for T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Hardik Pandya (Vice Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj. Gavskar said he would have liked to see someone like left-arm pacer T Natarajan in the World Cup-bound squad. “I was thinking more like T Natarajan, the left-hand pace bowler. He has been bowling exceedingly well, so thought he could have been in the team,” he said. Gavaskar felt a change in “attitude” and “approach” in the Indian side, which had failed to make an impact in the previous two editions of the T20 World Cup, could ensure the Rohit-led team lift the trophy. “There has been changes in attitude, changes in approach, which we saw in the 50-over World Cup (last year in India), and that augurs well for this (T20) World Cup as well,” he said. The former India skipper felt all the players would be perfectly conditioned going into the mega event given that they would have played a lot of cricket in the IPL. “They’ll go with good rhythm (following the IPL); the bowlers would have bowled a fair bit of overs, the batters will have enough time out in the middle, some of them would have scored 80s, 90s 100s. “So, clearly, this team will go with that little break… a week break (between the conclusion of IPL and start of the World Cup). With that little break, they will be a little bit refreshed, but at the same time not rusty,” Gavaskar said.