Former CSK Star belittles Gautam Gambhir for backing Shubman Gill over Sanju Samson

Former Indian cricketers have joined hands to slam Gautam Gambhir for making controversial decisions that benefit the team in no manner. The appointment of Shubman Gill at the top of the batting order and Sanju Samson's snub have now been claimed as painful by a few cricketers.

India has been relishing the unbeaten T20I series run under captain Suryakumar Yadav since they won the ICC T20 World Cup and would look to continue into the T20 World Cup with similar numbers. They have eight matches left ahead of the ICC tournament to be held in 2026.

Shubman Gill, the Indian Test and ODI skipper, made his comeback into the T20I setup ahead of the Asia Cup. He has been since then backed by head coach Gautam Gambhir, who also dubbed him as the vice-captain, citing him as India's next T20I leader.

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Former CSK star slams Gambhir's mindless backing of Shubman Gill

India lost the second game against South Africa in the series and opener Shubman Gill once again failed to contribute as he was dismissed for a golden duck. Gill has averaged very low and has constantly proved to be a failure in the shortest format of the game since his return.

“Sanju Samson has scored three hundreds. We are talking about T20 cricket, and he has three hundreds. What more do you want as a player? It is a little painful to see a player who has performed so well warming the bench,” Badrinath said during his commentary duty on Star Sports Tamil.

In contrast to Gill, Sanju Samson, who was demoted to the middle order due to Gill's arrival, had scored three centuries as an opener for India in T20Is in the calendar year of 2024. Hence, former CSK star Subramanium Badrinath has slammed Gambhir for benching such a cricketer and prioritizing an out-of-touch Shubman Gill in T20I cricket.

“He is the vice-captain of the team. I think only a player who is a certainty in the XI can be captain or vice-captain. He has been made vice-captain with these numbers. I can understand if there are no back-ups, but India has no dearth of talent in T20s,” he added.

"They say Gill is a good player, and they are giving him opportunities,” Kris Srikkanth questions, repeated opportunities for Gill

While Badrinath also claims that Indians have many talented players in the shortest format of the game, former Indian selector Kris Srikkanth echoed his statements. He clearly highlighted the massively controversial decision by pointing out the stats between the two batters.

“His (Samson’s) strike rate is 183 — that’s on another level. What are they even saying in press conferences? Each one is saying different things. They say it’s a battle between Sanju Samson and Jitesh Sharma. There is no clarity in what they are saying. They say Gill is a good player, and they are giving him opportunities,” he said.

“See, they themselves are confused." Srikkanth on the Axar Patel move in New Chandigarh

Srikkanth then went on to question the decision to suddenly promote Axar Patel at no. 3 in such a high-scoring game. While chasing 214, when India needed some big hitters to come above all, Gambhir instead opted to send Axar in with an agenda that never seemed to pay off.

“See, they themselves are confused. They don’t know why Axar Patel came in at No. 3.

“We are talking about the Indian team. Where is the fairness? Even when you give him chances, you are shuffling him around,” he said.

The Indian management has continued to back Shubman Gill as the Indian assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate claimed that Shubman Gill had shown sparks of fine form towards the end phase of the T20I series in Australia. He also gave excuses to defend Gill's dismissals in the series, which also indicates that he will continue to feature for India in the shortest format.

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