Shubman Gill As Vice-Captain - A Surprising Call In India's Champions Trophy Squad

Shubman Gill was named the vice-captain as BCCI announced the 15-member squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The Indian squad is finally out and as expected there have been several speculations associated with the squad as well.

The squad is a well-rounded one with India the selection committee ensuring that they covered all the bases. In Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, they have two good middle-order batters along with Virat Kohli.

Given India will be playing all their matches in Dubai, they have got their spin attack covered as well with Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav added. Three out of these four can bat and hence the lower-order batting is covered as well.

The pace attack is also well covered with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami included in the squad as well. Arshdeep Singh is the third pacer with Hardik Pandya as the seam-bowling all-rounder.

Shubman Gill In Tussle For Opening Spot With Yashasvi Jaiswal

Despite the presence of Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant in the squad, the selectors decided to appoint Shubman Gill as the vice-captain. This was one of the surprising calls. Gill has maintained an average of 58.20 in the format, however, his spot in the XI is not certain with Yashasvi Jaiswal also included in the squad.

Given how poorly Shubman Gill batted in the Test series against England, he seems to be struggling for form and not in the best of knicks at the moment. Besides that, with Jaiswal and Rohit opening, a left-right combination is also a thing to factor in which is not possible with Gill.

However, in ODI cricket since 2023, Gill has been batting like a dream. He scored 1584 runs in 2023 averaging 63.36 that year. In 2024, India did not play too many ODIs either. Thus stats might have favour his selection as the vice-captain. Plus Hardik Pandya is making a return to international cricket after a break and the selectors are perhaps willing to see his fitness.

Jaiswal is yet to make his ODI debut for India and given his recent good form, the Champions Trophy is the ideal platform for him to make his ODI debut. He does average 54 in List A cricket with a best of 203 against Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

India squad for the Champions Trophy: 

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant(wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah*, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal