Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar wasn't a fan of the selectors' decision of including Shubman Gill in the Men in Blue's 15-member squad for Asia Cup 2025. The 25-year-old was appointed as the side's vice-captain for the upcoming continental tournament so it is likely that he will feature in almost every game for the side.
This was quite a surprising decision as there were a lot of doubts over Gill's selection before the squad was announced. This was due to the fact that he hadn't featured for India in the shortest format since July, 2024. However, eventually the batter wasn't only selected, but was also made Suryakumar Yadav's deputy for the competition.
Manjrekar questioned why the selectors decided to choose Gill in the squad on the basis of his performance in the recently-concluded Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against England. He further remarked that the batter's selection for the Asia Cup 'doesn't make any sense'. Notably, Gill was the top-scorer of the five-match Test series with 754 runs from just 10 innings.
"It's something I've seen over the years, not just recently: this tendency of selectors to pick a player based on performances in one format, where that person excelled, and then picking him for another format. When I see a player getting rewarded for his Test match performances by being placed in the T20 side, I just find that devoid of cricketing logic. It just doesn't make any sense," Sanjay Manjrekar said on Instagram.
Gill has a decent record in the shortest format
Meanwhile, Gill has so far played 21 T20Is in his career, scoring a total of 578 runs which includes a century and three fifties. He has a strike-rate of 139.27 and the highest individual score of 126* in the format. The 25-year-old will be looking to replicate his form from red-ball cricket in the continental tournament.
On the other hand, India will kick-off their Asia Cup campaign with the clash against UAE on September 10 before facing-off against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 14. Their group stage will conclude with the match against Oman on September 19.
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.