India Test captain Shubman Gill has been rewarded with vice-captaincy after his memorable outing in the five-Test match series of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025. With Shubman Gill's return as T20 vice-captain ahead of the Asia Cup 2025, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan believes that the move has done 'the world of good to Indian cricket in the long term'. He further stated that the young batter will look to prove a point with his aggressive batting in the continental tournament.
Gill made his T20 comeback for the Asia Cup after flexing his form in a debut series as Test captain against England. Pathan said it isn’t something that would put pressure on incumbent leader Suryakumar Yadav.
“This selection of being vice-captain of Shubman Gill without the consent of Suryakumar Yadav would not have happened,” Pathan said in an interaction organised by Sony Sports.
“His (Suryakumar’s) responsibility is not only to perform, not only to actually look after the team, but at the same time grow leadership, grow the team and he has started (doing) that.
“People might think that puts pressure on him, but what he is doing, it's actually doing the world of good to Indian cricket in the long term and it will put Suryakumar Yadav (as) a proper leader who is respected, especially in the cricketing community,” he said.
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Pathan said Gill will look to “prove a point”.
“What we have seen this season, the way he played, the amount of runs he scored in last few seasons in the IPL as well. Now the Indian team has gone to (scoring at) higher strike rate.
"They want to just be very aggressive. I don't think so there will be an issue for Gill to start playing (an) aggressive role and do what team demands of him.
“More than anyone else in this group, Gill will go there and try to prove a point in terms of playing aggressive cricket. He has the ability and he has got a lot of range,” he added.
The Asia Cup 2025 is scheduled to start from September 9. India will start their campaign the next day against the UAE at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai. The high-voltage clash of the tournament between India and Pakistan will take place on September 14 at the same venue.
India’s squad for Asia Cup: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh
Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel