Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif believes that Shubman Gill was subjected to needless pressure when the BCCI assigned him leadership roles. Gill was recently relieved of his position as the T20I team’s deputy captain.
Gill, in Kaif’s opinion, was not prepared to handle the demands of leadership or all-format captaincy. After a lacklustre 2025 in T20I cricket, the former player is now under pressure to establish himself, according to the analyst.
“The T20 team does not include Gill. He is not to blame. He plays the game well. However, he was under a lot of strain. All of this was more than he could handle. He possesses a certain ability. He carried a great deal of weight. He has now been dropped because of this. All he did was sprint from one location to another. His career would be diminished as a result. His batting in ODIs is also being impacted by the pressure he is currently under. In a video posted to his YouTube page, Kaif said, “He scored a fifty, but there was not the same fluency.”
Kaif was quick to draw attention to the shift in strategy during Rohit’s time as ODI captain. He said that Gill should have been India’s ODI captain instead of Rohit, according to the BCCI.
They wanted to claim credit for creating the new squad and appointing Gill as captain.
“Under Rohit, we would frequently be ahead 2-0 when he tried new players in the final game, even if we didn’t win, just to see them. At least we never lost the series. Bilaterals never seemed so important to him. In the ICC events, he formed a strong team. It would have made sense to back him. It was wrong to move on from him. Despite all, we were trounced at home by New Zealand, and they left. Bracewell accomplished something that even a large captain like Williamson was unable to do,” he continued.
Gill currently captains India in both Test and One-Day International cricket. He recently captained the Men in Blue in a three-match ODI series against New Zealand, which they lost 1-2. India will now take on the Kiwis in a five-match Twenty20 International series before defending their title at the next Twenty20 World Cup.
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