While former India batter Subramanium Badrinath was pleased with the national selectors’ decision to name Shubman Gill as vice-captain of the 2025 Asia Cup squad, he was surprised to see Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan miss out.
India has revealed a 15-man roster for the Asia Cup in the UAE, which takes place in September.
Shubman returned to the T20I setup for the first time since July 2024, replacing Axar Patel as Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy. However, Badrinath believes Jaiswal and Sudharsan outperformed the Punjab batters in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and deserve to be included in the continental competition squad. The cricketer-turned-expert also believes that Shubman’s participation calls Sanju Samson‘s spot in the playing XI into question.
“I see this mostly as a positive that they are backing a youngster and projecting him for the future. But what about Yashasvi Jaiswal? He has done even better than Shubman Gill. Also, why has Sai Sudharsan missed out after scoring 700 runs in IPL 2025 and performing better than Shubman Gill? Sanju Samson himself is now in doubt to start in the playing 11,” Badrinath said while speaking in a video on his YouTube channel.
“So while backing Shubman Gill, you ask what wrong have Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan done when their numbers are better than Gill’s. Is this selection based on recency bias? This has been happening in India cricket forever – pick the player doing the best at the moment even if the formats are different. It’s not a bad decision but one that’s 50-50,” he added.
Did Shubman’s stunning performance in England Tests influence selectors’ decision? Badrinath answers
Shubman won the Player of the Series against England for his consistent performances during the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, which ended earlier this month. The right-handed batter finished as the highest run-getter in the series and also led the side commendably. Badrinath opined that his performances on the tour helped him earn a recall to the T20 side.
“Shubman Gill hasn’t even been consistently in the T20 setup over the last 2-3 years. Yet, he has been made the vice-captain of this particular side. It is clear the influence of his excellent captaincy and performance in the England series despite that being Test cricket. So he is definitely going to open the batting with Abhishek Sharma,” said Badrinath.
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