Agarkar clarifies the reason behind Gill’s promotion as Team India vice-captain

India team chief selector Ajit Agarkar explained the reason behind handing the vice-captaincy to Shubman Gill in white ball cricket. The promising youngster will be Suryakumar Yadav’s and Rohit Sharma’s deputy in the forthcoming T20I and ODI series in Sri Lanka. It is notable to mention that Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant were ignored for the role.

Shubman Gill recently led Team India to a 4-1 series victory against Zimbabwe in the shortest format of the game. He is also the skipper of the Gujarat franchise in the Indian T20 League 2024. 

“We don’t want a Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma-like situation in the future. Hardik Pandya was injured during the ODI WC 2023 and returned to international cricket for the T20 World Cup. Thankfully, we had Rohit Sharma around, and he agreed to lead India in the T20 World Cup. The situation became challenging for us as we were without our regular captain. To avoid this, we made Gill as vice-captain.

“He is a three-format player and still young. We want him to learn about the leadership from senior players like Rohit. For Rishabt Pant, we felt it was important to first bring him back as a player. He was out of cricket for more than a year. We don’t want to burden him,” Ajit Agarkar said.

The chairman of the Indian selection committee also talked about KL Rahul.

“KL Rahul hasn’t been a part of the T20I team for some time, and Gill has the acumen to succeed as a leader,” he concluded.