Ajit Agarkar Explains Why Shubman Gill Was Appointed India's Vice Captain For SL Tour

Shubman Gill was appointed as India’s captain for a five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe earlier this month, and in his first assignment as India captain, he helped the Men in Blue get the better of Zimbabwe by a margin of 4-1. Impressed by Gill’s leadership, BCCI then appointed him as India’s vice captain for the upcoming white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. The board’s decision to prefer Gill over the likes of Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul as Rohit’s deputy in ODIs came as a surprise for many fans and former greats of the game.

During India’s press conference in Mumbai on Monday (July 22), ahead of the team’s departure for Sri Lanka, chief selector Ajit Agarkar was asked about the decision to appoint Gill as vice captain, and he explained the reason behind giving extra responsibilities to the 24-year-old top-order batter.

According to him, Gill is a strong candidate for captaincy and plays in all three formats of the game. He was made vice captain so that he can learn from the likes of Rohit and Shubman and can step up if they are not available for some series in the future.

“We feel Shubman is a strong candidate. He plays across all formats and has shown good qualities over the last year, based on feedback from the dressing room. We want him to learn from senior players like Surya or Rohit. This way, we won’t be scrambling for a captain if there are injuries or a loss of form. Shubman has shown decent leadership qualities, and we want to give him the experience to develop further. There are no guarantees, but that’s the current plan,” Agarkar said.

No Surya for ODIs

During the press conference, Agarkar was also asked about Suryakumar’s absence from India’s ODI squad and if there were discussions about including him in the 50-over team. In reply to the questions about Surya’s ODI future, the former Indian pacer said that, at present, Surya is only a T20I player for India.

“No, we haven’t discussed Surya at this point in ODIs. We’ve got Shreyas (Iyer) back, KL (Rahul) is back, and they’ve had great World Cups. Rishabh is back as well. So, there is some real quality in the middle order. At this point, Surya has been a T20 player.”

Surya, who has 773 runs to his name in 37 ODIs for India, played in seven ODI World Cup 2023 matches for India, including the semi-final and final, but wasn’t able to do much.