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Suryakumar Yadav answers burning question after Shubman Gill named vice-captain for Asia Cup: 'The last time he played…'
Chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, breaks his silence on why Shubman Gill failed to make the Asia Cup squad.
India's Asia Cup squad has been announced, and Shubman Gill is well and truly back. The Test captain will serve as the deputy to Suryakumar Yadav in the eight-team tournament, beginning September 9 in the UAE. It was expected that the 25-year-old would find a place in the team after having a strong Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season for the Gujarat Titans, where he led the side into the playoffs. He also smashed more than 600 runs in the season.
On Tuesday, the chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, and T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav addressed the media, where they spoke about bringing Shubman Gill back into the mix in the shortest format of the game.
Speaking to the media, Suryakumar Yadav said that Shubman Gill was the vice-captain when India went to Sri Lanka for the T20I series. Stating how a new cycle was started after India's T20 World Cup 2024, the management opted to bring back Gill.
“In my opinion, the last time Shubman Gill played a T20I for India was when we went to Sri Lanka. When I was leading, he was the vice-captain. That's where we started the new cycle for the T20 World Cup. After that, he got busy with all the Test series. He didn't get an opportunity to play T20Is because he was busy with Test cricket and the Champions Trophy,” Suryakumar Yadav told reporters.
“He is in the squad and we are happy to have him. This is the first big tournament we are playing after the T20 World Cup. We played a few bilaterals, but this is a good tournament to test ourselves. There are a lot of T20S before we play the first game of the T20 World Cup. This is where the journey starts for the tournament,” he added.
On the other hand, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar was candid enough to admit that Sanju Samson only played as an opener because Shubman Gill wasn't available for the shortest format of the game, considering his commitments in the other two formats.
“Sanju was playing because Shubman and Yashaswi were not available at that point. So was Abhishek. Abhishek's performances clearly make it hard to leave him out. Plus, his bowling is handy. But, like I said, he was the vice-captain the last time he played T20 cricket. That was after the last World Cup,” said Agarkar.
Shubman Gill has steadily built an impressive T20 resume, showcasing both consistency and flair. In 21 T20 Internationals, he has scored 578 runs at an average of 30.42 and a healthy strike rate of 139.27, including one century and three fifties.
His ability to anchor and accelerate was further highlighted in IPL 2025, where he amassed 650 runs in 15 innings at an average of 50 and a strike rate of 155.87, with six fifties. Notably, Gill is among the select few Indians with centuries across all three international formats.
However, considering the Asia Cup's stature, this was the first time that all marquee players were made available for selection. The Asia Cup final is slated to be played on September 28. Just three days later, India is scheduled to face the West Indies in the first Test on October 2.
What was India's squad for the Asia Cup?
There is no place for Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the main squad. Suryakumar Yadav will lead the side with Shubman acting as his deputy. Rinku Singh and Tilak Varma retained their place in the squad.
The selectors also named five standbys for the Asia Cup. Yashasvi Jaiswal was a part of the standby list.
India Asia Cup 2025 Squad List: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh
Standbys: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel.
