Krishnamachari Srikkanth called Shubman Gill overrated, told why he should be dropped from the team

A member of the 1983 ODI World Cup-winning team, Former Indian cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth has lashed out at Shubman Gill for his underwhelming performance in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-2025. Terming Shubman Gill as a 'highly overrated cricketer', he questioned the selection committee's decision to continuously include him in the Indian team despite his prolonged poor form outside Asia.

Srikkanth also said he was shocked by the reluctance of the Indian team to consider other options. He compared the long rope given to Gill with that of Suryakumar Yadav, who, after playing the solitary Test against Australia in Nagpur in February 2023, has played in limited-overs formats. He said Suryakumar did not start well initially in Tests; he got his technique and is capable too but now selectors or management bound him to white-ball cricket only.

The former cricketer said Shubman Gill is still standing because he gets ten chances. He scores runs on the 10th chance after nine failures. That is why he is getting 10 more chances to succeed. Anyone can score runs on Indian wickets. The challenge is to score runs in SENA countries outside home and this is where players like KL Rahul pass the test.

The former cricketer also praised the performance of Rituraj Gaikwad and expressed surprise at his not being selected for the Indian team. He said, "Rituraj Gaikwad is doing brilliantly in first-class cricket, but they did not bother to select him. Meanwhile, players like Sai Sudarshan are making a splash in the 'A' tour. You should promote such talents, instead they are choosing Gill.

Shubman Gill had a great debut series against Australia in 2020-21. Since then, though, he has slipped considerably in foreign conditions. Consistency eluded him. An average of 17.64 in 18 innings outside Asia bears testimony to this fact. In this time, Gill has failed to touch even the 40-run mark once. He was also badly outplayed in this season's Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, where he registered scores of 13, 20, 1, 28, and 31. He scored 93 runs in five innings with his highest being 31 runs in the Pink Ball Test at the Adelaide Oval. Since his Test debut at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2020, Gill has played 32 Tests in which he has scored more than 35 runs per inning.