“It won’t happen at all,” Aakash Chopra rules out Shubman Gill’s potential return to T20I setup as captain

Shubman Gill was dropped from India's T20 World Cup 2026 squad.

Following India’s T20 World Cup 2026 triumph, skipper Suryakumar Yadav may have declared his next goal – winning the Olympic gold medal for the country – but 2028 is two years away, by which time he would turn 37.

With the next T20 World Cup also scheduled the same year in Australia and New Zealand, the prospects of Surya leading the Indian team are slim. Which raises the question: Who could be India’s next T20I captain?

Until last year, Shubman Gill was the leading contender, but his poor run of form in T20Is forced the BCCI and its selection committee to ditch the all-format captaincy plan. Notably, Gill was handed India’s Test and ODI captaincy last year.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, former opener Aakash Chopra also ruled out the potential return and appointment of Gill as the next T20I captain.

Gill was the notable omission from India’s T20 World Cup 2026 squad. He looked to be a sure-shot for the marquee event after his return to the format as vice-captain during the Asia Cup last September. However, the 26-year-old struggled to make an impact with the bat, scoring 291 runs in 15 innings at an average of 24.25 and a strike-rate of 137.26 without any half-century.

“It’s going to be difficult, although the Indian team thought that it would become easier if there were one captain for all three formats. However, it won’t happen at all. I feel we won’t be able to do that because he is the Test and ODI captain, but he can’t get the T20I captaincy. At this moment, even his name coming is difficult because of the way the Indian team has been playing, especially the last four games,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

Instead, Chopra suggested Gill to focus on his long-format abilities and not dilute them in a bid to adjust in the T20I setup.

“When are you talking about 250, and that too in a World Cup, then you don’t think you need an anchor. Shubman Gill can adapt and change, but we shouldn’t lose Shubman Gill, the Test batter, in trying to find that, and lose the Shubman Gill who can become an absolute giant in ODIs. I think it’s going to be difficult for Shubman Gill,” he added.

In Gill’s absence, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan emerged as India’s leading run-scorers in the T20 World Cup, amassing 321 and 317 runs respectively while strike at nearly 200.