Shubman Gill was surprisingly dropped from India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2026, which was announced on Saturday, December 20, 2025. This comes after continued failure with the bat as the opener of the Indian team in the shortest format.

The controversial issue was that Shubman Gill had been included in the Indian team in place of Sanju Samson, who had slammed three centuries in T20Is in 2024. He was also made India's vice-captain in the T20Is, with a sect of critics saying that it was undeserved.

Scoring runs in T20Is was critical, and even if he couldn't, no one could have predicted that Ajit Agarkar, chairman of selectors, would end the Gill experiment so soon and so close to the T20 World Cup.

There was much deliberation around the Shubman Gill transfer, and it has now been revealed that the batter had no intention of being removed from the T20I squad.  

However, it has been found that Shubman Gill was not informed of the decision to dismiss him while preparing for the New Zealand series. However, once the decision was made to exclude him from the T20 World Cup 2026 squad, the selectors decided to inform Gill personally about the move.

“Gill was informed about the non-selection just minutes before the meeting concluded. He was informed that the call had to be made keeping the combination in mind,” sources privy to developments confirmed to Hindustan Times.

While the focus is on the possible combination of abilities, it is clear that Gill's recent form played a role in his not securing the opening berth. Indian team management was concerned with the form of both vice-captain Shubman Gill and captain Suryakumar Yadav.

Gill played 15 matches in 2025, accumulating 291 runs with a strike rate of slightly more than 137. While these scores are not very outstanding, given the present status of T20Is. In 2025, Suryakumar played 21 games for India, scoring 218 runs at an average of less than 13 and a strike rate of less than 118.

Now that Gill has been dropped from the squad, one can't help but wonder how the team management communicated when he was replaced by Samson in the final T20I against South Africa in Ahmedabad.  

There was communication regarding the 26-year-old suffering a toe injury on the eve of the fourth T20I in Lucknow, but given the lack of runs, it has been revealed that the management wanted to try Samson at the top to keep all options open.