Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav and young opener Abhishek Sharma have defended Shubman Gill after a mixed tour of Australia. Ever since his return to the Indian team, Shubman Gill has been in the headlines due to his special performance with the bat.
After being promoted as India’s T20I vice-captain, Gill failed to live up to expectations in the Asia Cup 2025 and managed only 127 runs in the UAE. His bat was also silent during his first series as India’s ODI captain in Australia.
Suryakumar Yadav and Abhishek Sharma defend Shubman Gill amid criticism over mixed T20I performance
He could only score 9, 10 and 24 in the three ODIs as India lost the series to Australia. This right-handed batsman could not make any significant impact in the recent five-match T20 series against Australia. Gill has scored 37*, 5, 15, 46 and 29* in five innings.
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Well, the Men in Blue managed to win the T20 series after the final game was canceled in Brisbane. After the match, when Abhishek was asked about his teammate’s performance in this format, he said that his partnership with Gill has developed into a balanced and explosive combination. He described them as a dangerous opening pair for India in T-20 cricket.
Abhishek Sharma calls his partnership with Shubman Gill “fire and fire” after T20I series win
Abhishek Sharma told reporters in Brisbane (as quoted by RevSportz journalist Subhayan Chakraborty), “My partnership with Shubman Gill is no longer fire and ice, but fire and fire. Look at the way he was batting today.”
Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav, on the other hand, dismissed concerns over Gill’s strike rate and praised the opening pair. Shubman Gill finished the T20I series as the second leading run scorer with 132 runs, but his runs came at a strike rate of 136.08.
Suryakumar said after the match, “They both want to match each other’s strike rate.”
Abhishek Sharma shines, India wins T20 series in Australia
India won the five-match T20 series against Australia by a 2-1 margin after the fifth and final match at the Gabba ended without a result due to rain. Earlier, the first T20 match was also washed out due to rain and then Australia won the second match, but India made a brilliant comeback and won the series.
Only 4.5 overs were possible, during which openers Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill made a quick partnership of 50 runs at the Gabba. But there was lightning followed by rain due to which the match had to be abandoned after a delay of two hours.
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Abhishek survived two early falls and broke the world record for the fastest batsman to reach 1,000 T20I runs in terms of balls faced. The left-handed batsman achieved another feat, becoming the second fastest Indian batsman to score 1000 runs in T20 Internationals.
Only Virat Kohli has achieved this feat in fewer innings (27). It took Abhishek 28 innings to reach this milestone in the shorter format of the game. Abhishek was named Player of the Series for being the leading run-scorer in the T20I series scoring 163 runs at a strike rate of 161 including one half-century.
India extends 13-year unbeaten T20I run in Australia
On the other hand, this was the fifth consecutive bilateral T20 series win for Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir as captain-coaches.
With a 2-1 T20I series win in Brisbane, India continued their dominance in T20I cricket in Australia, extending their unbeaten streak in bilateral series to 13 years. Since losing its only T20I series in Australia in 2008, India have not lost any bilateral T20I series.