Shubman Gill’s ouster from the T20I squad for the World Cup came as a shocker, but former Australia skipper Michael Clarke fully expects India’s ODI and Test captain to take command of the T20I side after the ICC tournament gets over. Clarke, the 2015 World Cup-winning captain, reckons BCCI’s decision to drop Gill from India’s T20 scheme of things was taken keeping the World Cup in mind. With runs not flowing and his bat having gone quiet, Gill endured a torrid time after his ultra-successful Test tour of England, scoring just 291 runs in his last 15 T20I innings for India.
Clarke is confident that Ajit Agarkar took that decision because of the BCCI and the management’s razor-sharp focus on the immediate goal: winning the World Cup. And with India not struggling for options at the top of the order, axing Gill was justified.
“He might still be (in contention). I don’t think that changes too much. I think the squads needed to be announced by a certain time, and he wasn’t batting as well as he would like. India’s got so many opening batting options; he’s not the captain of the team at this stage, so I think they pretty much made the decision. They wanted these couple of warm-up games to be a real focus on what they are doing in the World Cup. There were questions about his form. They made that decision specifically in the lead-up to the World Cup,” Clarke said in the Beyond23 Cricket Podcast.
Why Clarke feels Gill will eventually return as India's T20 captain
That being said, Clarke firmly believes that once the World Cup is over, Gill will be back not just in India’s T20I squad but also take over as captain from Suryakumar Yadav. With the BCCI long pushing for a single captain across formats and Surya’s form eluding him, getting Gill back into the T20I set-up will be the right blueprint for the BCCI, Clarke mentioned.
{{/usCountry}}That being said, Clarke firmly believes that once the World Cup is over, Gill will be back not just in India’s T20I squad but also take over as captain from Suryakumar Yadav. With the BCCI long pushing for a single captain across formats and Surya’s form eluding him, getting Gill back into the T20I set-up will be the right blueprint for the BCCI, Clarke mentioned.
{{/usCountry}}“I think after the World Cup, don’t be surprised if he not only comes back into the team, but he also takes over the captaincy. He’s an unbelievable player; just not playing his best cricket at the moment. I don’t think there are too many concerns moving forward with Shubman Gill. India has made it clear we are 100 per cent focused on this World Cup, and we want to win it,” he said.