With no signs of improving form over the course of an extended run, former India batter Mohammed Kaif wants the team management to drop vice-captain Shubman Gill from the T20I side for the remainder of the South Africa T20I series, albeit with a hint of subtlety.
Dropping the vice-captain will not look the part for the Men in Blue and Kaif wants India to perhaps offer the 26-year-old a break and hand chances to Sanju Samson in the remaining two matches of the five-game series in Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
“If you want to keep things in control, don’t use the word drop (with Gill). Just say that you are giving him a break, or want to try out a different player. But they have to go with a new player in these next two matches. Whomever that player is, he deserves those matches, he has the right. He must be thinking Gill is playing for a year, and I have been dropped after 2-3 poor innings. That player is Sanju Samson,” Mohammad Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
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After falling for 4 and a golden duck in three deliveries in the first two T20Is, Gill could only muster a run-a-ball 28 in a 118-run chase in the third game in Dharamsala on Sunday. Gill progressively struggled during his knock before being cleaned up off a tame cut that produced an inside edge.
‘Time’s up’
Kaif said that India have offered Gill a fair share of chances since his return to the side in September, but with him failing to seize the opportunity, the side must rightfully move to te next player in line.
“There may be one or two players, like X-factor players who deserve special treatment in terms of opportunities, but look at Shubman Gill now, how many innings has he got already? It is not like we have started talking about this now, we have been talking about this for quite some time now. You have to take a call now, the time has come,” he added.