![\"BCCI](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BCCI-selection-committee-Chairman-Ajit-Agarkar-wit_1755614712055.jpg\" "\\"BCCI")
BCCI selection committee Chairman Ajit Agarkar with Indian men’s T20 cricket captain Suryakumar Yadav. (PTI) <\/p>\nMumbai: Shubman Gill returns to India\u2019s T20 fold as opener and vice-captain, making him a certain starter in the Suryakumar Yadav-led side for the Asia Cup campaign starting September 10. India play Pakistan as well as UAE and Oman in the league phase.<\/p>\n
BCCI selection committee Chairman Ajit Agarkar with Indian men’s T20 cricket captain Suryakumar Yadav. (PTI) <\/p>\n
Gill\u2019s selection from among India\u2019s burgeoning T20 talent pool didn\u2019t seem locked in with Abhishek Sharma-Sanju Samson\u2019s opening combination having made a strong case with their power-packed starts in the previous three bilateral series. However, before Tuesday\u2019s selection meeting, in a final round of informal deliberations between captain, chief selector Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir, they are known to have decided to back high-flying Test skipper Gill\u2019s T20 credentials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last time he played T20I, post the World Cup when we went to Sri Lanka, he was the vice-captain,\u201d Surya said about Gill. \u201cThat\u2019s where we started a new cycle for the (2026) T20 World Cup. After that we got busy with Test cricket and he didn\u2019t get opportunities. We\u2019re happy to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal too was a playing eleven regular in that Sri Lanka series, played in July last year. He was picked ahead of Gill for the 2024 World Cup. Gill, having grown in stature in the other formats, has earned himself an opportunity to find his T20 peak. With Jaiswal \u201cit\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d Agarkar told the media conference.<\/p>\n
In all likelihood, Gill will open with Abhishek Sharma, his fellow Punjab opener. That will force another change in the playing combination \u2013 Samson is likely to make way for Jitesh, who makes a comeback and will slot in as a finisher in India\u2019s preferred eleven.<\/p>\n
Gill\u2019s ascent to becoming a key member in India\u2019s all-format leadership group is evident. \u201cI can discuss T20 right now. In Test cricket, he is already leading. He was the vice-captain in the last T20, so we obviously see some leadership qualities in him,\u201d Agarkar said. \u201cAnd his form in England, he obviously exceeded all our expectations, which is a great sign, (to perform) when there\u2019s so much pressure on you as a captain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shreyas misses out <\/p>\n
Shreyas Iyer\u2019s 604 runs while leading Punjab Kings to the IPL final went unrewarded. With India\u2019s Asia Cup matches to be played in Dubai where the wickets may assist spin, the proficiency of Shreyas against spin may have come into consideration. However, the selectors chose to stick with Tilak Varma, who scored heavily in the bilateral series before IPL.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, no fault of his. Got to tell me who he can replace? At the moment, he\u2019ll have to wait for his chance,\u201d Agarkar said on Shreyas.<\/p>\n
While Shreyas does not find a place even among the five reserves, allrounder Washington Sundar does. Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel are the others who narrowly missed the cut.<\/p>\n
With Gambhir\u2019s preference to have multi-skilled options in the squad, Washington stood a chance. Instead, the selectors went with Rinku Singh, giving the UP left-hander another chance to excel in the difficult finishing role.<\/p>\n
Among spinners, Kuldeep Yadav\u2019s return pushes leggie Ravi Bishnoi out, opening a window for the wrist spinner to combine with Varun Chakravarthy. The spin twins were very successful in bamboozling batters in the ODI Champions Trophy played earlier in the year in Dubai.<\/p>\n
Bumrah for big games<\/p>\n
Back to leading the pace pack will be Jasprit Bumrah. Giving him company will be Arshdeep Singh. The two were a force during India\u2019s winning campaign in 2024 USA-West Indies. Bumrah\u2019s limited availability for the England Test series to manage his workload has raised further questions on how the pace ace may be used across formats in the immediate future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any written plan,\u201d said Agarkar. \u201cIt\u2019s been a nice break after the England series. Physios, team management and people concerned have always been in touch, tried to look after him since we know how valuable he is. Clearly, we want him available for all the big games. There are World Cups, Champions Trophy, big series like England, Australia \u2013 you want him available. Because he\u2019s picked up injuries over the last 2-3 years, because of how special and unique it is, it won\u2019t change. Based on how he\u2019s feeling and how we require him, we hope he\u2019s available more often than not.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third pacer\u2019s slot goes to Harshit Rana, who had made a bright debut in the last T20I series against England in January-February. Rana\u2019s ability to hit the deck and his power-hitting saw him chosen over Krishna, who was the highest wicket-taker in this year\u2019s IPL with 25 scalps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like we don\u2019t look at IPL,\u201d said Agarkar. \u201cWhen you pick a T20 squad, of course, you look at IPL performances. Because there have been overlapping series, there have been a lot more people who have ended up playing T20 cricket. We\u2019ve got so many options as far as T20 is concerned that sometimes it\u2019s not the easiest squad to pick. It\u2019s a good headache to have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mumbai: Shubman Gill returns to India\u2019s T20 fold as opener and vice-captain, making him a certain starter in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[21425,64,63,740,19329,61001,12538,10536,85],"class_list":["post-80240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-asia-cup","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-indian-cricket-team","tag-jitesh-sharma","tag-kuldeep-yadav","tag-shubman-gill","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}