Gill or no Gill? Selectors weigh brand vs form in Asia Cup call

Shubman Gill’s return risks upsetting a settled T20 squad under Suryakumar Yadav, where leadership roles, batting slots, and even Rinku Singh’s place hang in the balance.

New Delhi: How to fit in a brilliant batter like Shubman Gill in a well-oiled T20 set up will be the biggest challenge for India's national selection committee when it gathers on Tuesday to pick the 15-member squad for next month's Asia Cup in UAE.

As of now, the prolific Test captain, who had a dream run in England recently, is not organically fitting into the side which will play the continental showpiece from September 9 to 28.

For Ajit Agarkar and his colleagues, the major point of deliberation will be how to fix something that doesn't need to be mended.

It's a "scary" conundrum for the selectors but Indian cricket right now is a T20 talent factory with at least 30 players who are ready to come into the national squad with three to four options available for one slot.

For the top three positions, there are six cricketers of similar pedigree available.

Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma have been phenomenal in national colours through last season but then the ones who are equally good, if not better, happen to be Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan (the IPL Orange Cap winner).

In bowling, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi are jostling for one slot. And the craftiest of them all Yuzvendra Chahal has been ignored for longest time.

But then selectors can pick only 15 and those in decision-making positions of T20 team have an interesting perspective.

One important member of team management feels that it would be unfair on anyone who has been a first XI regular during the past season to be deprived to accommodate a bigger brand name or star.

The other school of thought is that Indian cricket works well with one all-format captain who also becomes the biggest marketing brand -- in this case Gill, who is an obvious choice for a lot of stakeholders going forward.

But then to assume this will happen smoothly is oversimplification of the issue.

Under Suryakumar Yadav's able leadership, the Indian T20 squad has a phenomenal 85 per cent record, winning 17 of its last 20 games. None of these games featured Gill and Jaiswal.

But there's a catch too.

Before Gill and Jaiswal became busy with Test commitments in the past one year, they were playing T20 Internationals s and were doing well including impressive IPLs.

Gill was in fact vice captain to Surya before he had to forego T20Is due to Tests. Axar Patel, the Delhi Capitals skipper, became Surya's deputy and performed decently even though he is not considered a long-term leadership candidate.

However, Axar will certainly feel shortchanged if Gill supercedes him as Surya's deputy.

On Tuesday, if selectors pick Gill in the 15, then they have to play him in the eleven which means one among Sanju, Abhishek or Tilak will have to compromise their batting slots.

To include Shubman in the 15could also means dropping Rinku Singh. The big-hitter hasn't done much in head coach Gautam Gambhir's era either for Kolkata Knight Riders or India.

In Gambhir's book there's nothing called a designated finisher. So choices won't be easy.

Choice of pacers -

With Hardik Pandya being as good a frontline pacer as one can get and Jasprit Bumrah along with Arshdeep Singh being automatic choices in the line-up, there are three options for the reserve seamer's slot.

Harshit Rana looks the favourite as both Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj are being considered red-ball specialists.

With hoem series against the West Indies starting October 2, it is understood that Bumrah might not be required against the relatively weak visitors side as Prasidh and Siraj will be fresh and raring to go.

Choice of spinners -

Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav are first three choices and Gambhir's affinity for all-rounders is likely to ensure Washington Sundar in the side.

The pitches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi won't be as worn out and slow as they were during the Champions Trophy but there is reasonable help for spin bowlers.

Finishers and Keeper-batter -

Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rishabh Pant are yet to recover from their respective injuries. As a result, Shivam Dube will be the second seam bowling all-rounder after Pandya.

The second keeper's slot is a fight between Jitesh Sharma and Dhruv Jurel.

Jitesh played some good knocks as a finisher for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their IPL-winning campaign and is more suited for a lower-order role.