Former India National Cricket Team batsman Robin Uthappa has dropped a bold statement on the selection of the Test captain, Shubman Gill, in the 15-man Asia Cup 2025 squad.
Robin Uthappa feels that Shubman Gill has been given a superstar privilege and included in the Asia Cup 2025 squad despite India selectors knowing it would cause an issue.
Shubman Gill returns to the India T20I squad as vice-captain
Gill is looked at as the next poster boy of Indian cricket, and he is currently going through a golden run in his cricket career.
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Ahead of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025, he was appointed as the India Test captain after Rohit Sharma retired from red-ball cricket.
Gill did a good job in his first stint as Test captain and helped India draw the series 2-2 in England, scoring 754 runs at an average of 75.40.
After the series, Gill returned to India’s T20I squad for the Asia Cup 2025 and was named as the vice-captain, replacing Axar Patel in the role.
Shubman Gill is part of India’s leadership group across formats, and reportedly, he is being groomed to become an all-format captain soon, replacing Rohit Sharma at the helm in ODIs and Suryakumar Yadav in T20Is.
You want certain superstars to take the game forward – Robin Uthappa
Speaking on his official YouTube channel, Robin Uthappa said that Shubman Gill has emerged as a superstar that India would be backing to the fullest to continue the tradition of superstars carrying Indian cricket. He elaborated:
“They have caused an issue for themselves by bringing Shubman into this whole process of including him in T20 cricket. But I also think from an Indian cricket perspective, at all kinds of eras, you have always had superstars and they have backed a particular player for the sake of Indian cricket, and I think that narrative is continued to be followed right now.
“I think the marketing and business narrative also takes precedence, and I think that is also a part, which is why he is also brought in. You want certain superstars to take the game forward. Shubman is going to be one of them.”
In the Kerala League, he also batted in the middle order as a finisher initially – Robin Uthappa
With Shubman Gill returning to the T20I team and being named vice-captain, the possibility of him opening with Abhishek Sharma is pretty high, which means Sanju Samson would be either dropped or bat in the middle-order, where he hasn’t been much successful. Talking about this, Robin Uthappa said:
“Tough call. In the Kerala League, he also batted in the middle order as a finisher initially. It’s not going to be that easy to work. You can’t do it at the age Sanju is at. You should have gone down that road five years ago.
“A lot of Indian batters score a lot of runs, but they don’t understand that the opportunities that they can get at the top are very few and far and between. They might be openers and score a lot of runs. But the opportunity at the higher levels is not going to be much.”
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