The former all-rounder of the Indian side, Ravichandran Ashwin, has reacted to the vice-captaincy appointment of Shubman Gill for the upcoming edition of the Champions Trophy 2025, with Rohit Sharma being selected as their regular leader. The youngster will shoulder the responsibility also during the three-match series against England at home as a preparation for the ICC event.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who recently retired from international cricket after the end of the third Brisbane Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia, felt that the selection of vice-captain for the blue brigade made sense as Gill seems to be the only player who is sure to feature in all the fixtures.
A few questioned the position of the batter in the ODI side after his poor performance in the red-ball format down under. But it would be hard to mix formats, with the batter enjoying 2023 as the leading run-getter in the ODI format with 1574 runs in 29 innings at an average of 63.36 and a strike rate of 105.45 with the help of five centuries and nine fifties.
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“I don’t want to go into whether the decision is right or wrong, but the point that was taken was right. He was the vice-captain in the last series, and he has also been given the post sometimes in Test matches as well, although I could be wrong there.” Ravichandran Ashwin expressed in a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Ash ki Baat.’
Ravichandran Ashwin supports India’s decision to appoint Shubman Gill as vice-captain
Most of the discussions against Gill were made because of his poor outing in the five-match Test series in Australia. He enjoyed significant success in the 50-over format, with an average of nearly 60 in 47 innings.
In the five-match series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, Gill finished with 93 runs in five innings at an average of 18.60 and a strike rate of 46.20 with the best score of 31 runs. His average of 43.30 in the longest format in 2023 is the first year of his continuous run in the top order.
Ravichandran Ashwin claimed the appointment of Shubman Gill as the new vice-captain was taken, keeping the future in mind.
“This is a very futuristic call. They are looking at who could be the leader in the future. Now you said Axar Patel is vice-captain in T20s. (But) there can be a competition between Axar Patel and Jadeja for the same spot.” The former all-rounder of Tamil Nadu shed light.
“Between Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul, the latter is the incumbency keeper. Rishabh and KL could both play together as well. But the player who is 100 percent going to be there in the eleven has been made the vice-captain.” Ravichandran Ashwin highlighted.
Gill was the T20I captain in the away Zimbabwe series, which took place between the end of the 2024 T20 World Cup and the upcoming Sri Lanka series, where the new head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav was selected in the position.
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“The stability is good at the moment, and if for some reason Shubman has to captain in the future, then he can lean on people like Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah – there are many people.” Ravichandran Ashwin concluded.
India will start their campaign for the ICC event against Bangladesh on February 19 before they face Pakistan and New Zealand in the group stage of the competition at the Dubai International Stadium.