“I'm pretty sure he'll be on the phone” - Sunil Gavaskar hopes Shubman Gill takes the axing in the right spirit

Former Indian batter and commentator Sunil Gavaskar has expressed hope that Shubman Gill will take the exclusion from the T20 World Cup 2026 squad in the right spirit. Further, he also added that the chief selector Ajit Agarkar would have proper communication with the former Indian vice-captain.

For the unversed, Gill was axed from the 15-man squad for the mega event, which is scheduled to start on Saturday, February 7, in India and Sri Lanka. Interestingly, the selectors went ahead with two keeper-batters, who can open the innings.

"I hope Shubman takes this in the right spirit. I wish him the best. Some of his injuries have been strange. Knowing Ajit Agarkar, I'm pretty sure he'll be on the phone to Shubman, trying to explain to him why they took the call that they did," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

Furthermore, the former Indian cricketer also reckoned that it was a ‘course correction’ by the selection committee to have Sanju Samson back in the top order alongside Abhishek Sharma. Surprisingly, the selection committee has also axed Jitesh Sharma to bring in Rinku Singh as the finisher. 

"And I think it's a course correction in the sense that when Shubman came into the T20 squad, Sanju Samson went down the order. Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma had formed a very good opening pair - a left-hand, right-hand combination - looking to hit the first ball of the game for a six and getting India off to fabulous starts,” he added.

"I think that is something Ajit will definitely speak to Shubman about, assuring him that he's always going to be in the discussion. But for this particular tournament, considering the fact that he's had some injuries and hasn't been in the best of touch, they've left him out. That doesn't mean he won't be part of future teams," he noted.

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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