Shubman Gill replaces Hardik Pandya as vice-captain of India’s T20I team

Shubman Gill has replaced Hardik Pandya as the vice-captain of India’s T20I side.

Shubman will be deputy to Suryakumar Yadav, who has been named as India’s T20I captain for the Sri Lanka tour. The BCCI has announced India’s ODI and T20I squads for the upcoming Sri Lanka tour. Gill was tasked with the captaincy duties for the 5-match T20I series against Zimbabwe. Under his first-ever international captaincy stint, India won the series 4-1 against Zimbabwe. Gill will be donning the vice-captaincy hat in the shortest format as well as the ODI format for the tour.

Hardik Pandya was India’s vice-captain in their T20 World Cup 2024 winning captain in the USA and West Indies. He played a crucial role in India’s triumph in the ICC event, as he showcased his brilliant all-round skills right throughout the tournament. Hardik was being seen as the T20I captain after Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the shortest format. However, he was taken down from the post as Team India’s vice-captain as well. However, Hardik featured in the T20I squad as a player and did not feature in the ODI squad for the Sri Lanka series.

Major turn in fortunes for Gill
Gill had not even featured in India’s 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 as he travelled with the team as a reserve player. He had a major turn in fortunes as he went from being a reserve player to leading the side against Zimbabwe and becoming the vice-captain of the team. Shubman led the team from the front against Zimbabwe as he finished off as the top-run scorer of the series. Gill scored 170 runs in five matches at a strike-rate of 125.93 at an average of 42.50.

India’s T20I Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.