Former opener Kris Srikkanth calls Shubman Gill ‘an overrated cricketer’

In the meantime, the young player was publicly abused by former India batsman Kris Srikkanth, who called him an overrated batter and chastised the selectors for continuing to support Gill in spite of his generally lacklustre performances.

Considering their duties and responsibilities, the Indian top-order batsmen have not made much of an impact in the last two Test series. The only two batsmen to emerge as winners for India in the just finished Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024–25 were Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. Shubman Gill, who was hailed as the future captain of India’s batting order, had a fairly lacklustre run with his blade, though.

Despite being rated highly early in his career, Gill, who was born in Punjab, was only able to score 93 runs in the three games he played in the series, keeping a dismal average of 18.60. Gill was expected to demonstrate a mature intent at the crease as experienced batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma also failed, but he was unable to meet the expectations.

“I have consistently argued that Shubman Gill is an overvalued cricket player, but no one has paid attention to me. Gill is an extremely overrated cricket player. Given how long his rope is, some may question whether guys like Suryakumar Yadav might have received a longer rope during Test matches. Although Suryakumar didn’t start the tests well, he had the skill and technique. However, he has now been caged into a white-ball specialist by the administration and selections. Thus, you must consider new talent,” Srikkanth stated on his YouTube account.

Gaikwad and Sudharsan have not been chosen by the selectors: Kris Srikkanth

The Madras native also urged that the selectors chose to recruit young players, such as by shifting their focus from Gill, and praised players like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sai Sudharshan for their outstanding first-class cricket exploits.

For instance, Ruturaj Gaikwad has been excelling in first-class cricket. However, they haven’t bothered to choose him. Sai Sudharsan has been dazzling on ‘A’ tours in the meantime. These kinds of talents must be promoted. Rather, they are circling back and forth by choosing Gill,” Srikkanth remarked.