Ajit Agarkar, chief selector of the senior men’s India team, announced their Asia Cup squad today (August 21). However, there was some confusion regarding Shubman Gill’s place in the team.

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Gill has been a major part of the Indian ODI set-up in the last one year. In fact, he has been the highest run-scorer for India in ODIs since 2022 and has cemented his spot at the top of the order, taking the place of Shikhar Dhawan.

Most recently, Gill was part of the Indian team for the tour of the West Indies where he featured in every game in each of the three formats. He was rested from the Ireland tour with an eye on the gruelling two to three months of cricket coming up, which is why, when the host broadcasters initially showed that Gill was not a part of the Asia Cup squad, it raised a lot of eyebrows.

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Star Sports, broadcasting the India squad announcement, did not have Gill on their announcement infographic, having revealed the names before Agarkar and Rohit Sharma appeared for the press conference. It was only after sending Indian cricket followers into a frenzy for a few minutes that they course-corrected and mentioned that Gill is, indeed, present in the squad.

[caption id=”attachment_546458″ align=”alignnone” width=”1366″]Shubman Gill The broadcasters excluded Gill from the original version of the Asia Cup squad that they showed first-up[/caption]

 

[caption id=”attachment_546459″ align=”alignnone” width=”2192″]Shubman Gill The corrected the squad after a few minutes just as Rohit and Agarkar were about to address the media, but without Sanju Samson[/caption]

Here’s the actual squad:

The confusion led to strong reactions from the Indian fans as the idea of Gill, who has scored 1388 runs at an average of 69.40 in ODIs since 2022, not being in the Asia Cup squad (barring a mysterious injury) was unfathomable. However, as Agarkar announced, Gill did find himself in the squad and is expected to play a big role going forward.

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India International CricketSeries EditorialAsia CupShubman Gill