Post by : Meena Ariff

India’s vice-captain, Shubman Gill, is under growing scrutiny after a difficult run on the white-ball tour of Australia. Reintegrated into T20 internationals during the Asia Cup 2025, the 25-year-old opener has found it hard to string consistent scores together at the highest level.

In his last 10 T20I innings Gill has managed just 184 runs, averaging 23 with a strike rate of 146 and a highest score of 47. His recent form in ODIs has also been modest, yielding 43 runs across the three-match series against Australia, and the increasing competition for top-order berths has intensified the debate around his place in the side.

Ahead of the fourth T20I at Carrara Oval, Gold Coast, a clip circulated by RevSportz showed head coach Gautam Gambhir in a lengthy conversation with Gill during net sessions, fuelling suggestions that the coaching team may be addressing either technical tweaks or mental approach.

Gill’s returns in the current T20I series — 37, 5, and 15* — have failed to show the rhythm India expect from an anchor at the top. Across the tour his recent sequence reads 10, 9, 24, 37, 5, 15*, highlighting a run of starts that have not been converted into big contributions.

To date Gill has 31 T20I appearances for India, totaling 762 runs at an average of 28.22 and a strike rate of 140.85, including one century and three fifties. His clearest sign of timing on this tour came in a washout match at Canberra, where he looked comfortable in the early stages.

With the series even at 1-1, Thursday’s fourth match offers India a chance to seize the lead — and gives Gill an opportunity to quiet criticism and reassert himself as a reliable top-order option under the new leadership.

Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.

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