NEWS
Follow UsFormer India captain and chief selector Kris Srikkanth has torn into Shubman Gill for his lean returns outside Asia and has labelled the Indian No.3 batter a ‘highly overrated cricketer’.
Gill had a breakout debut series in Australia in 2020/21 but has struggled to buy a run outside Asia since then, averaging 17.64 across 18 innings. He has not crossed the 40-run mark even once during this period and endured a disappointing 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, finishing with scores of 13, 20, 1, 28, & 31.
“I’ve always maintained that Shubman Gill is an overrated cricketer but nobody listened to me. He is a highly overrated cricketer,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
Srikkanth questioned the selectors for giving Gill such a long rope and wondered why India have been stubborn to move away from him when they did not give a long rope to someone like a Suryakumar Yadav. Suryakumar was axed after a solitary outing against Australia in Nagpur and has since been functioning as a white-ball specialist.
“When Gill is getting this much of a long rope, some people might wonder whether even players like Suryakumar Yadav could have been given a longer rope in Tests,” the former India captain said.
“Suryakumar didn’t have a very good start in Tests but he has the technique and he has the ability. But the selectors and the management have now boxed him into a white-ball specialist. So that means you have to look at fresh talent.”
Srikkanth urged the management to instead give chances to the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sai Sudharsan, who, according to him, deserve to be picked in the side ahead of Gill.
“Ruturaj Gaikwad, for example, has been doing wonderfully in first-class cricket. But they’ve not bothered to pick him. Meanwhile someone like a Sai Sudharsan has been lighting it up in ‘A’ tours. You have to promote these kind of talents. Instead they are running around circles by picking Gill,” Srikkanth said.
“Gill is right now surviving because he gets ten chances and scores on the tenth chance after nine failures. And because of that, he is getting another ten chances to succeed. Anyone and everyone can amass runs on Indian wickets, The challenge is scoring away from home in SENA countries and that’s where players like KL Rahul pass the test.”
