Former India selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth believes Shubman Gill’s ‘body language’ is revealing that he’s feeling the pressure of both replacing Rohit Sharma as the captain and keeping a talented player
like Yashasvi Jaiswal on the bench. Srikkanth said Gill needs a couple of big knocks in the next series, against South Africa in November, to regain the confidence to play his natural game.
Gill had a poor start to his full-time ODI captaincy career, scoring 10, 9, and 24 in the three away matches in Australia. Rohit, on the other hand, put up over 200 runs, including a match-winning century in the third ODI, to win the Player of the Series award, despite India losing the series 2-1.
“After performing in England, probably he is also putting pressure on himself. He shouldn’t do that and just play his game. He actually played well today but just got a superb delivery from Hazlewood. More than Shubman Gill getting himself out, it was a wicket-taking delivery that got him. But he does look to be under pressure, just observing his body language because he has replaced Rohit Sharma as the captain, while also opening alongside him.”
Gill began opening alongside Rohit regularly in 2022 and emerged as one of India’s best batters in the format in the last couple of years. It was only the third series since 2023 that he didn’t have a fifty-plus score in — two of them have come against Australia.
“And on the other side, everyone is asking why Yashasvi Jaiswal isn’t playing. All that adds to his pressure. But he’ll get over it as he’s a fantastic player. He should just play his normal game because he’s getting his strides and shots right. He’s just getting out, that’s the only thing. So once he produces a couple of big knocks at home against South Africa, he’ll be set again,” Srikkanth added
Gill and Rohit’s strong hold of the opening positions has meant Jaiswal, despite dominating in Tests and in the IPL, has played only one ODI for India — against England in February, where he scored 15 runs.
