Former Indian cricket all-rounder Irfan Pathan weighed in on the discussion surrounding Shubman Gill's role in the national team ahead of Asia Cup 2025 which is set to kick off from September 9. With Gill recently being named vice-captain for the 2025 Asia Cup and excelling in his first series as Test captain, there's been much debate about his ability to perform consistently across all three formats.
Irfan Pathan vows same treatment to Shubman Gill if he meets Virat Kohli fate
Pathan was asked whether Gill might face a slump similar to the one experienced by Virat Kohli while juggling all three formats. Pathan dismissed the comparison, stating that it is too soon to have that conversation about Gill. He clearly said that it's unfair to speculate on a lean period for the young player at this early stage of his career.
"Virat Kohli is a great player. He has been a match-winner. But he was averaging 15 batting first. And there are certain things that were not going his way. But it is not like he is not a good player if he did not perform at that time. He has won games for India for years. Tomorrow, if Shubman does not perform, if his average is also 15 for an entire year, and he is still with the team, then we will talk. For now, he was the vice-captain before as well, but no one questioned that when he went out. Now he is back, which was his place," Pathan said during a conversation on Sony Sports Network.
It's been a while since Gill last feature in the T20Is. He last played in T20Is just before the 2024 T20 World Cup. Despite the gap, Pathan believes Gill has significantly improved his game. The 2007 T20 World Cup-winner is, however, confident that Gill will have no trouble adapting to the fast-paced format and playing an aggressive brand of cricket for the national team.
"I think Shubman Gill has improved his T20 cricket a lot. What we have seen this season, the way he played, the amount of runs he scored, and few seasons in the IPL as well. There was a time I remember when he started, when he played for KKR, I vaguely remember his strike-rate was about 125ish. And then suddenly he jumped to 150. Last year's IPL was 150 plus and he was consistently scoring runs as well. Now the Indian team has gone to a higher strike-rate, they want to be very aggressive. So I don't think there should be an issue for Shubman Gill to start playing an aggressive role and do what the team demands of him," he concluded.
India’s squad for Asia Cup: Suryakumar 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