At the young age of 24, Shubman Gill has got his maiden captaincy duty in the IPL when, on Monday, the Gujarat Titans announced the opener as their new skipper following the departure of Hardik Pandya.
Hardik Pandya, who captained GT to the IPL 2022 title and runner-up in IPL 2023, has got back with Mumbai Indians, his first franchise where he spent 7 seasons from 2015 to 2021. MI also traded away Cameron Green to RCB to make space in their purse for Hardik to return.
Soon after Pandya’s move to MI was announced, the Gujarat Titans didn’t waste any time in announcing Shubman Gill as their new skipper. The 24-year-old Gill was picked as the captain ahead of Kane Williamson and Rashid Khan, who was the vice-captain when Hardik was the skipper.
Shubman Gill is young, has a potentially bright future, and could one day also captain India. So the votes fell in Gill’s favor over Williamson and Rashid, both overseas players.
However, Harsha Bhogle believes it should have been Kane Williamson who should be the GT captain and Gill could have been his deputy for one season.
Life is moving a little too fast for Shubman Gill: Harsha Bhogle
Commentator Harsha Bhogle took to Twitter to express his views about Gill being appointed the new GT skipper at the age of 24. Bhogle pointed out that Gill has cemented his place in the ODI side, but is yet to be a regular in the Test and T20I team.
Bhogle reckons Gill might have benefitted more by being the vice-captain for one season, under Williamson, and then taking over the charge in IPL 2025, when a mega-auction is expected.
“I think life is moving a little too fast for Shubman Gill. He has had a great year as a batter and he needs to take that next step forward in the next few months with a test series in South Africa and a T20 World Cup where he has competition for his place. It might have benefitted him to be understudy to Kane Williamson for a year at GT with a view to being captain at IPL 2025,” Bhogle tweeted.
This will be Shubman Gill’s first chance to captain in the IPL, having made his IPL debut back in 2018 for KKR. He was the Organce Cap holder in IPL 2023 with 890 runs, which included 3 hundreds. Gill has led Indian domestic sides in the Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy previously.
