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After four months of investment, BCCI’s selection committee ended India’s ‘project Shubman Gill’ in T20Is on Saturday. Gill was left out of the upcoming T20 World Cup squad, with Sanju Samson reinstated as the primary opener and Ishan Kishan, who scored a blazing ton in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final, named as back-up. Former India cricketer Atul Wassan welcomed the move, saying it marked a shift toward specialist T20 players.
Speaking to ANI, Wassan said that he never fully understood Gill’s place in the T20I setup.
“I would not say that Shubman Gill has been axed. Because, you know, I hear a lot of talk about it, but yes, it was looking impractical and not pragmatic, according to me, for somebody to be captain of the Test team and then play all three formats. The guy has to change gears, and I think that is unfair these days,” he said.
After a spectacular show against England earlier in the summer, in what was his maiden assignment as the India Test captain, Gill was called up for the Asia Cup, marking his return to the T20I format after more than a year, and was reinstated as the vice-captain. The move sparked speculations that the BCCI has a larger plan in place, with the 25-year-old rumoured to take over the reins in the format after the T20 World Cup next year. However, the move backfired as the batter struggled to adjust to India’s T20I template, failing to score a single fifty in the last four months.
Wassan pointed out the growing pressure on multi-format players, primarily due to the Indian Premier League (IPL) ecosystem.
“Let him play the IPL. I think because of IPL…I can understand the pressure from the franchise owners because they would love to have an Indian T20 player in their IPL team, and that raises the economic value,” he explained.
The veteran cricketer concluded by saying that Gill should look to detach himself from the format and keep himself focussed on Tests and ODIs, and urged the selectors to fully commit to specialists for the T20I format.
“Hence, I say that Shubman Gill, going forward, has to just detach himself and this team has to be pure T20 specialists. And I think that is the way forward. All the teams in the world are doing that. We are a country of 140 crores, right?” he said.
