Earlier this week, Shubman Gill was named as India's vice-captain for Asia Cup 2025. This came after the 25-year-old performed brilliantly as the Men in Blue's Test captain against England in the recently-concluded Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Though there were doubts over his selection for the continental tournament as he hadn't featured in T20Is since July 2024, the batter eventually was picked and was even named the deputy.
However, a report by Cricbuzz has now claimed that Gill is set to miss the Duleep Trophy, which was set to be his first major event since the Test series against England. The report stated that despite being named the captain of North Zone, Gill will not be available for the tournament as he is 'unwell'.
"The physios recently examined him and submitted a health status report to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) about 24 hours ago. At present, Gill (25) is in Chandigarh, resting at home," the report stated.
Huge blow for North Zone
Gill's unavailability comes just a few weeks before the commencement of Asia Cup. It will definitely be a big blow for North Zone as they not only would lose their captain, but they would also lose one nof the most important players from their squad.
The continental tournament will begin from September 9 and will be played solely in the UAE and the final will be contested at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on September 28. India will begin 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 come to a conclusion with the match against Oman on September 19. Suryakumar Yadav & Co. will definitely be aiming to clinch a record 9th Asia Cup title in their history.
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.