Former Indian cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath has questioned the logic behind Shubman Gill being named as T20I vice-captain amid a string of low scores in the format. Gill's scores read 4 and 0 in the first two T20Is of the ongoing series against the Proteas.

Badrinath could not fathom why a top-order player of Sanju Samson's caliber has been dropped from the T20I XI in order to accommodate Gill in the setup. Coming to Gill again, Badrinath remarked that someone else than Gill should be made Suryakumar Yadav's deputy.   

“Sanju Samson has scored three hundreds. We are talking about T20 cricket, and he has three hundreds. What more do you want as a player? It is a little painful to see a player who has performed so well warming the bench. He is the vice-captain of the team. I think only a player who is a certainty in the XI can be captain or vice-captain. He has been made vice-captain with these numbers. I can understand if there are no back-ups, but India have no dearth of talent in T20s,” shared Badrinath during his commentary on Star Sports Tamil.

Kris Srikkanth, who was also commentating along with Badrinath during the match, echoed the latter's sentiments. He additionally went onto highlight Samson's explosive strike rate and exclaimed how the team management was clueless as to the actual reason the wicketkeeper-batter is being kept out of the XI.

The T20I series against Australia was nothing out of the ordinary for Gill. He could only score 132 runs in five innings. With the T20 World Cup 2026 fast approaching, it will be interesting to see how India compose their XI when it comes to including Gill in the mix.

Speaking of the series, both India and South Africa have won one match apiece. The third match is scheduled to be held at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala on Sunday, December 14.