Ajit Agarkar explains why Shubman Gill was appointed India’s vice-captain for SL Tour

Shubman Gill was named India’s captain for a five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe earlier this month, and in his first assignment as India captain, he helped the Men in Blue beat Zimbabwe by a margin of 4-1. Impressed with Gill’s leadership, BCCI subsequently named him India’s vice-captain for the upcoming white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. The board’s decision to choose Gill over the likes of Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul as Rohit’s deputy in ODIs came as a surprise to many fans and former greats of the game.

During India’s press conference in Mumbai on Monday (July 22), ahead of the team’s departure to Sri Lanka, chief selector Ajit Agarkar was asked about the decision to appoint Gill as vice-captain. He explained why the 24-year-old top-order batsman was given additional responsibilities.

According to him, Gill is a strong candidate for captaincy and has played in all three formats of the game. He has been appointed vice-captain so that he can learn from players like Rohit and Shubman and step in if they are not available for a series in the future.

“We feel Shubman is a strong candidate. He has played in all formats and has shown good qualities in the past year, based on feedback from the dressing room. We want him to learn from experienced players like Surya or Rohit. That way, we don’t have to fight for a captain if there are injuries or if the form goes down. Shubman has shown decent leadership qualities and we want to give him the experience to develop further. There are no guarantees, but that is the current plan,” Agarkar said.

No Surya for ODIs

During the press conference, Agarkar was also asked about Suryakumar’s absence from India’s ODI squad and whether there were any talks about including him in the 50-over team. Responding to the questions about Surya’s ODI future, the former Indian pacer said that Surya is only a T20I player for India at the moment.

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“No, we haven’t talked about Surya at this point in ODIs. We have Shreyas (Iyer) back, KL (Rahul) is back and they’ve had great World Cups. Rishabh is back as well. So there is definitely quality in the middle order. At this point, Surya is a T20 player.”

Surya, who has 773 runs to his name in 37 ODIs for India, played in seven ODI World Cup 2023 matches for India, including the semi-final and the final, but could not produce much.

“No, we haven’t talked about Surya at this point in ODIs. We have Shreyas (Iyer) back, KL (Rahul) is back and they’ve had great World Cups. Rishabh is back as well. So there is definitely quality in the middle order. At this point, Surya is a T20 player.”

Surya, who has 773 runs to his name in 37 ODIs for India, played in seven ODI World Cup 2023 matches for India, including the semi-final and the final, but could not produce much.