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Legendary India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin feels that Sanju Samson's place in the playing XI for Asia Cup isn't guaranteed after the appointment of Shubman Gill as the vice-captain. The Men in Blue's 15-member squad for the continental tournament was announced on Tuesday and it is safe to say that the selection committee did make some surprising calls. One of them was the appointment of Gill as Suryakumar Yadav's deputy even though the former hasn't featured for the team in the shortest format since July, 2024.
Ashwin wasn't a fan of this move and remarked that Gill may very well be a future leader, but the BCCI should stop trying to make him the captain in all the three formats. He also believes that Samson will be denied a place in the XI as the selectors will prefer to play the vice-captain over him.
“Maybe they are thinking of Shubman Gill as the leader for the future. Maybe he can be the all-format captain. But it is not necessary to have the same captain in all formats,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“What is sadder is that you have announced Gill as the vice-captain, so Sanju Samson's place is also under threat. Sanju is not going to play. Shubman Gill will play, and he will open the batting,” he added.
Ashwin wanted Shreyas to be included as well
Meanwhile, Ashwin also questioned Ajit Agarkar & Co's decision of not picking Shreyas Iyer in the Asia Cup squad despite the latter's fine performance with the bat in ICC Champions Trophy 2025. He also highlighted Shreyas' accomplishments in the IPL from the past two seasons where he first won the title as the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024 before leading a young Punjab Kings side all the way to the final in 2025.
“Shreyas Iyer has solid credentials. He was out of the team, but he made you win the Champions Trophy. If you argue that Shubman Gill is in blasting form, then Shreyas is also in some fine form. Who will answer all these questions? What Shreyas has done wrong,” Ashwin stated.
“He did brilliantly well for KKR, made them win. He was sent into the auction. He then took Punjab to the finals for the first time since 2014. He overcame the short ball problem. He was hitting the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Jasprit Bumrah with ease in the IPL. I am just extremely sad for him and Yashasvi Jaiswal; it is extremely unfair,” he further added.
India's squad for Asia Cup 2025: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.
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