Gill left out of India's T20 World Cup squad; Rinku, Kishan make comebacks

India have left out vice-captain Shubman Gill from their squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who topped the charts in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 517 runs at nearly two a ball, replaced Gill in the top order, allowing India to squeeze in Rinku Singh, who has not been part of recent T20I squads. The late change in strategy meant Jitesh Sharma, the No. 1 wicketkeeper in recent series, had to miss out.

In Gill's absence, Axar Patel was named the vice-captain of the 15-man squad. The rest of the selection went along expected lines. Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana were the three frontline fast bowlers with two of them expected to make it to the final XI. Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav were the two frontline spinners, joined by Axar and Washington Sundar as the spin allrounders.

Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube were the seam-bowling allrounders to go with a power-packed middle order of captain Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Rinku. Opener Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Kishan rounded up the 15. The same squad will play the five-match T20I series against New Zealand.

Ajit Agarkar, chair of the selection committee, attributed the late pivot from Gill to the team management's preference for a wicketkeeper to open the innings. "It's more to do with the combination that we want to play, or what the team management is comfortable with playing," Agarkar said. "Their thoughts are... who's going to bat at the top? Abhishek, obviously, has done what he has done over the last year. And we felt the keeper at the top at this point gives us a lot more solidity than anywhere else in the team to play different combinations. There are only 15 that we could have picked. Someone has to miss out. It's him. It's not because he's not a good player. Again, Jitesh hasn't done too much wrong. These are the combinations that the team management is looking for."

Gill, who replaced Samson in the XI when named the vice-captain of the side, has not scored a single half-century in the 15 innings at the top. He has scored 291 runs at a strike rate of 137.26. He missed the last T20i against South Africa with a foot injury; Samson scored 37 off 22 in his absence. Suryakumar, who has himself gone the whole year without a half-century, said Gill's form was not the issue here.

"It's not about his form or anything," Suryakumar said. "It's just about the combination right now. We wanted to have a keeper at the top. We wanted to have someone like Rinku Singh or maybe a Washington Sundar later on, to have a different combination. So that's why we brought in that extra wicketkeeper at the top.

"And he's a terrific player. And there's no question about that. The only thing is that the situation is such that we need a keeper at the top of the order to have two-three good combinations which can win us the World Cup."

Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vice-capt), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (wk)