Former Australia captain Michael Clarke feels that Shubman Gill is good enough to make a return to India's T20I set-up after the World Cup. He further backed the 26-year-old to become the side's captain in the shortest format in the near future. This comes after Gill was dropped from the team for the 2026 T20 World Cup and hasn't been included in the squad for the New Zealand T20I series as well.
Gill's disappointing T20I return
Gill made his return to T20Is with the Asia Cup in 2025, but failed to play any notable knock in 15 consecutive innings before eventually being dropped from the team. The 26-year-old wasn't able to record a single 50+ score in the format and his highest individual score was 47. This led to him being replaced in the team as the selectors brought backk both Ishan Kishan and Rinku Singh for the T20 World Cup.
Despite Gill's poor form, Clarke feels that he is good enough to be in contention for India's T20I team. He also explained why the batter failed to make the cut into the squad for the T20 World Cup.
"He might still be (in contention). I don't think that changes too much. I think the squads needed to be announced by a certain time, and he wasn't batting as well as he would like. India's got so many opening batting options; he's not the captain of the team at this stage, so I think they pretty much made the decision. They wanted these couple of warm-up games to be a real focus on what they are doing in the World Cup. There were questions about his form. They made that decision specifically in the lead-up to the World Cup," Clarke said in the Beyond23 Cricket Podcast.
Clarke feels Gill can become T20I captain
Clarke further said that it wouldn't be a big surprise if Gill returns to the squad and gets appointed as the captain after the T20 World Cup. India's first T20I assignment after the Wortld Cup is scheduled to be against England in July. The Men in Blue will go on a white-ball tour consisting of five T20Is and three ODIs, starting from July 1.
"I think after the World Cup, don't be surprised if he not only comes back into the team, but he also takes over the captaincy. He's an unbelievable player; just not playing his best cricket at the moment. I don't think there are too many concerns moving forward with Shubman Gill. India has made it clear we are 100 per cent focused on this World Cup, and we want to win it," Clarke stated.
India's squad for 2026 T20 World Cup: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.