Gill back as vice-captain; no place for Iyer and Jaiswal as India announce 15-member Asia Cup T20 squad
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On a day when all eyes were on India's Asia Cup squad selection, T 2 0 c a p t a i n Suryakumar Yadav's toughest decision was whether to step out of his home at all. Sheets of rain hammered Mumbai on Tuesday as the national selectors gathered at the Wankhede Stadium to pick the squad. Surya made it just fine, and from the selections and omissions, it was plain that the Indian think tank had a clear idea of what they wanted to do with their T20 team.Shubman Gill did not just come back into the fold; he did so as vice-captain. After his initiation into leadership in the Test series in England, Gill made the strongest possible case for himself as a leader of men. Indian set-ups are never keen to split captaincy, and even when they must, the thought of the Test skipper not making the cut in one of the 'less demanding' formats would not have sat easily with the powers that be.Gill's inclusion is by no means contentious. He has the game to score in any format. He has demonstrated in the IPL that it is possible to motor along consistently at a high strike rate even while playing conventional cricket shots. Gill is undeniable quality, but the only place he fits into the eleven is as an opener.This means that the free-stroking Abhishek Sharma will hold his place at one end, while S a n j u S a m s o n will get shuffled out of the playing eleven. Despite his performances, Samson will be back on the bench as reserve opener. Being a top-order batter, he doesn't fit as first-choice wicketkeeper either. Gill's presence also means that Yashasvi Jaiswal does not find a place in the squad and will have to be content in the reserves.India could have picked a 17-man squad, which would've allowed for Jaiswal to be a part of the mix, but the fact that they chose to stay with the conventional 15 is an indication that they knew exactly what their thinking was and were not diffident about showing their cards. The other player to miss out, thanks to the shape this batting lineup has taken through Gill's inclusion, is Shreyas Iyer. As Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of selectors, pointed out, Shreyas has done nothing wrong. 'With regard to Shreyas, who can he replace? No fault of his, nor is it ours,' said Agarkar. 'At the moment, you can just pick 15. So, he will have to wait for his chance.'India could have pushed to pick 17, but when there was no place for Iyer in the set up, it made little sense to carry him as a passenger simply for the sake of it.In the T20 game, most teams have moved away from having any toporder batsman play an anchoring role. But, India, with Abhishek at the top and Surya floating in the middle and lower order, and Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh waiting to explode, have decided Gill has a role to play as someone who might start at the top and take the innings deep. For his part, Surya saw this selection as a straightforward return to normalcy, not as a marker being laid down in terms of vision or direction. 'Last time when he [Gill] played T20 for India, post T20 World Cup when we went to Sri Lanka — not Zimbabwe — when I was leading, he was the vice-captain,' Suryakumar said. 'So that's where we started a new cycle. After that, he got busy with all the Test series, and he didn't get an opportunity to play T20s because he was busy playing Test cricket and Champions Trophy. So, he's there in the squad, and we're happy to have him.'Hardik Pandya has Axar Patel and Shivam Dube for company in the all-rounder category. Dube's ability to clear the field against spin worked in his favour, especially with Shreyas not in the mix.The other critical component to emerge from the meeting was the return of Jasprit Bumrah. While Bumrah's workload in Test cricket was managed, with a long-term view and medical advice to back it, there was innuendo that he was somehow picking and choosing matches. His prompt return when fit should shut down any more of this speculation.The competition at the Asia Cup is unlikely to be intense, even if playing Pakistan more than once hogs the headlines. To that end, this squad could be a pointer in the direction the team are taking to the next T20 World Cup.
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