Aakash Chopra described the Ajit Agarkar-led BCCI selection committee’s decision to drop Shubman Gill from India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2026 as a “brave” one. The former Indian opener praised the committee for not being too rigid and trying to correct a possibly incorrect decision.
Shubman didn’t have a great time with the bat in the shortest format since making his return during the Asia Cup in September. In 15 T20Is this year, he averaged a meagre 25.24.
Chopra said that the move to leave out Shubman, who is India’s Test and ODI skipper, was bold and correct. The former Indian opener believes that this call has altered how the team looks.
“Shubman Gill was the vice-captain earlier, and now he is not even part of the team. It’s never too late to make a change. You shouldn’t feel ashamed while doing the right thing. Why should one be stubborn? Sometimes one sticks to it because there will be public humiliation,” Chopra said in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel.
“This selection committee said they are not stubborn, that if they had made a mistake, they have corrected it. However, many other things have changed while correcting that mistake. The team looks totally changed. It is a bold move. It is a very brave move. Looks like a right move, but many lives have been impacted,” he added.
Shubman Gill was opening only because he was the vice-captain: Aakash Chopra
Chopra opined that the decision to bring back Shubman in the T20I setup came with the idea of having him play the anchor’s role, while fellow opener Abhishek Sharma could go berserk from the outset.
“Shubman Gill was opening only because he was the vice-captain. You made him the vice-captain because you wanted yin and yan, a stabilizer with an aggressor, since more than 200 runs are not scored in World Cups or multi-nation tournaments. They went with that philosophy,” he said.
Chopra spoke about Virat Kohli’s match-winning knock in the T20 World Cup final in 2024 against South Africa. The 48-year-old feels that the management expected a similar impact from Shubman at the top of the order.
“Virat Kohli scored runs in the World Cup final. Similarly, we need an anchor, although ships have anchors, planes don’t have them. Between all of that, you removed Sanju Samson from that number. So you didn’t let Sanju Samson play at his designated number in the last three or four months. You asked him to play down the order, and he was half the player there,” Chopra observed.
While Shubman was dropped, Ishan Kishan and Rinku Singh made a comeback. Jitesh Sharma also lost his place in the side after Kishan’s return.
India
