Barring Yashasvi Jaiswal, no Indian batter managed to score runs with the consistency required to excel in Australia. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Rishabh Pant, and KL Rahul showed promise on multiple occasions but couldn’t stand up and deliver when India needed them to click as a unit. While majority of the focus has been around the poor form of veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, even Shubman Gill had a forgettable Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Seen as the next big thing in Indian cricket, Gill has been backed by the selection committee over a long period of time but his output, especially overseas, remains below par.
Former India cricketer Krisnamachari Srikkanth, also a member of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning team, has branded Shubman Gill ‘overrated’ while hitting out at the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee for ignoring other deserving stars.
“I’ve always maintained that Shubman Gill is an overrated cricketer but nobody listened to me. He is a highly overrated cricketer,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
“When Gill is getting this much of a long rope, some people might wonder whether even players like Suryakumar Yadav could have been given a longer rope in Tests,” he said.
Srikkanth feels the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Sai Sudharshan are some of the top-order players who should be looked at by the selection committee. As Gill struggles to perform at his best, the trio has done well in domestic cricket but the selection committee still continues to look the other way.
“Suryakumar didn’t have a very good start in Tests but he has the technique and he has the ability. But the selectors and the management have now boxed him into a white-ball specialist. So that means you have to look at fresh talent.”
“Ruturaj Gaikwad, for example, has been doing wonderfully in first-class cricket. But they’ve not bothered to pick him. Meanwhile, someone like Sai Sudharsan has been lighting it up in ‘A’ tours. You have to promote these kinds of talents. Instead, they are running around circles by picking Gill,” he asserted.
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