The indifferent form of captain Suryakumar Yadav and his deputy Shubman Gill is a huge concern, but the national selection committee is unlikely to make any shock changes when it picks the 15-man squad for next year’s T20 World Cup here on Saturday.
The BCCI will have the option to replace any of the named 15 until the start of the T20 World Cup on February 7. For the record, during the Champions Trophy earlier this year, Varun Chakravarthy replaced Yashasvi Jaiswal after slow tracks in Dubai were taken into account.
While no one in the BCCI is explaining it, the global event in India could be Suryakumar’s last as the national T20 captain. He is already 35 years old and has been in shape for the last year.
Enduring a barren run of almost 14 months and 24 matches, Suryakumar is holding on to his place only because he is the captain.
The the committee will also select the T20 team for New Zealand which will be the same as the one selected for the T20 World Cup.
There are currently no vacancies, although Gill’s position has repeatedly come under the scanner as he waits in the wings in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
It remains to be seen whether the selectors will name Jaiswal as the next player for the New Zealand series, just to watch him in case he is needed during the mega event co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
The opening reserve position currently belongs to Sanju Samson, who was unfairly removed from his position when the selection committee and an important member of the team’s think tank decided to fix something that wasn’t broken.
With the T20 World Cup six months away, the selection committee had every option to look for alternative management options.
However, an early T20 World Cup and the form of leaving his deputy Gill, who was seen as the captain of all formats after taking the reins of the Test and ODI sides, stood him in good stead for Suryakumar.
But with just five games to go before the World Cup opener against the United States of America in Mumbai on February 7, no jury would want to break the continuity.
YASHASVI JAISWALA’S SURPRISE PICK?
While there is a good chance that the 15 selected against South Africa for the home match will also play against New Zealand and subsequently in the T20 World Cup, Jaiswal’s name will almost certainly come up as he has proved to be the more versatile T20 player compared to Gill and Samson.
But with Samson now the second wicket-keeper (Jitesh Sharma is the first-choice stopper and finisher) and Gill promoted as vice-captain, it is difficult for Jaiswal to break into the 15 as he does not fit into any other particular slot.
The only other weak link in the 15 is Washington Sundar, who is yet to show any pyrotechnics in 57 T20Is. But he is more of a bowling all-rounder in this format.
On paper, the side looks unbeatable with 14 proven IPL superstars (excluding Washington), but what will probably stick out like a sore thumb is that two of the top three batters are horribly out of form.
India Probable 15: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshi Washington Sun Ranju San.
Probable Standby Players (5/6): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Shahbaz Ahmed/Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna.
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
December 19, 2025
