In a recent series of events before the mega-auction of IPL on December 19, the news of a trade deal between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians emerged, where the IPL-winning captain Hardik Pandya will return to his former franchise Mumbai Indians from Gujarat Titans. Shubman Gill, the young, dynamic and reliable opening batsman, has been named the captain by Gujarat Titans.

Shubman Gill in IPL

Shubman Gill has played six IPL seasons so far, beginning with Kolkata Knight Riders. However, he was let go by the franchise ahead of the 2022 IPL auction. He was signed by the Gujarat Titans and has two consecutive successful seasons. He emerged as the highest run-getter of IPL 2023 scoring 890 runs at an average of 59.33, at an impressive strike rate of 158. In his IPL career, Gill has scored 2790 runs in 91 games at a strike rate of 134. 

Harsha Bhogle’s comment on Shubman’s captaincy

Cricket pundit Harsha Bhogle took to X (formerly Twitter) to share his opinion. He said that it would be too early for Gill to be handed over the major responsibility of captaincy, considering he has had an amazing year of cricket. 

Bhogle posted, ”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 suggested that Gill must play under Williamson’s captaincy for another year, which would help him groom as a captain and help him manage his batting and captaincy equally.

Shubman Gill in 2023

Shubman Gill was the only batsman in world cricket to score more than 2000 runs in International cricket. In his 45 international appearances for India across all the formats, he scored 2118 runs. The majority of the runs came from ODI, where he played 29 games and scored 1,584 runs. The talented 24-year-old is expected to be the next big thing in International cricket.

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Hardik Pandya’s captaincy

Gujarat Titans in its debut season in 2022 lifted the IPL trophy and finished runners-up under Hardik Pandya’s captaincy. He has captained his side in 31 IPL games and won 22 games, with a 70.97 percentage winning record. In T20Is, he has captained India in 16 games, winning 10 of them, and losing 5 times.