“He needed that break” - Ex-Indian cricketer opens up on Shubman Gill’s exclusion for T20 World Cup 2026

Former Indian opening batter Sadagoppan Ramesh has opened up on Shubman Gill’s exclusion from the India squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, which is scheduled to start on Saturday, February 7, in India and Sri Lanka.

Speaking on his Instagram handle, Ramesh asserted that it was a good decision from the selection committee to drop Gill as he needs a break from the format to retrospect and make a strong comeback later after the marquee event. 

"Vice-captain Shubman Gill has been dropped from Team India’s T20 World Cup squad. It is a good decision as he himself needed that break. Having struggling in T20I cricket and not scoring a fifty in around 18 innings along with failing to maintain the required strike rate, Gill now has the opportunity to think how he wants to play in the format moving forward. Whether or not Gill will be thinking about it, I reckon selectors have decided it keeping that in mind,” Sadagoppan Ramesh said on his Instagram handle.

Furthermore, he also talked about Suryakumar Yadav’s form in the shortest format of the game. Surya could score only 218 runs in the ongoing calendar year from 21 T20Is at an average of 13.62 and a strike rate of 123.16, with the highest score of an unbeaten 47-run knock. 

"Suryakumar Yadav has equally struggled in T20Is and it’s been a while since he played a good knock. But there’s a difference. He has thrived as the skipper and boasts of one of the best T20I records as captain. With a success rate of 85.18%, he is already one of the most successful T20I captains. It will be beneficial if he starts translating that success into captaincy too. The selectors have decided not to disturb Suryakumar Yadav, the captain, with the T20 World Cup looming. Good work. You will see Surya going well with the bat, moving forward,” he added.

"In one of the previous videos I had said Suryakumar Yadav will also feel the pressure when Shubman Gill was appointed vice-captain. The reason is he looks to play aerial shots immediately; hence, the selectors might look to replace him in the setup. He was batting like a cat on a hot tin roof. Surya was playing under the pressure that the selectors can look to replace him as captain with Gill but the mind should be free now,” he concluded.

India’s T20 World Cup 2026 Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.

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