Mohammad Kaif, ex-India cricketer, has slammed the Indian team management and BCCI for putting so much pressure on young Shubman Gill and stated that his career has been shortened due to the same.

This comes after Shubman Gill suffered his second ODI series loss as India captain in succession. After Australia defeated India 2-1 down under, New Zealand blanked India 2-1 as well, this time in India itself, with Shubman Gill struggling with form as well, despite two fifties in the three ODIs.

Shubman Gill was surprisingly named India ODI captain despite Rohit Sharma leading the Men in Blue to an ICC Champions Trophy win in 2025. Gill also replaced Rohit as India's Test captain after the opener announced his retirement from the format.

Gill was also backed as T20I vice-captain starting with the Asia Cup 2025, but his failure to score runs at the top led to him being dropped from the India T20I squad and not picked for the T20 World Cup as well.

"The biggest mistake was backing Shubman Gill so heavily. The reason Gill is not in the T20I team currently is not himself. The reason is that a lot of the load has been put on him. He is a good player. But he wasn't ready to bear all the burden. Just like elevators have a weight limit, Shubman Gill also has a capacity. It is not possible," Kaif stated on his YouTube channel.

Kaif stated that Gill has been overloaded with tasks, leading to increased pressure on the 26-year-old.

"He has been told, 'You do the test captaincy,' 'You can become better than Virat Kohli,' 'You will break records,' and 'You will play every format.' I feel Gill's career is being shortened due to the pressure being put on him. He has the pressure of getting dropped on him, and he is unable to bat freely in ODIs either. The fluency in his batting is not there. Whoever made the decision to hand Gill so much load must be held responsible," Kaif further stated.

Kaif further stated that he wished Rohit Sharma had remained India's ODI captain and Shubman Gill had been eased into the captaincy across formats.

"It would've been smarter to keep Rohit Sharma as the captain, and he should've been asked whether he is mentally tired of not being the skipper. Smart management should've stayed with Rohit and supported him. Moving on from him was the wrong move. They wanted the credit of making the new team, making Gill captain," Kaif said.