Punjab has announced its 18-member squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh are also included in this squad. With the arrival of three international star players, the Punjab team appears to be in a strong position, this team also has power hitting batsmen like Prabhsimran Singh, Naman Dheer and Ramandeep Singh. The most surprising thing is that Punjab has not announced any captain for the upcoming tournament.

Punjab’s 18-member squad includes Indian ODI and Test team captain Shubman Gill. Gill, who has not been included in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup by BCCI. This year, Gill has scored 490 runs in 11 ODI matches at a good average of 49. On the other hand, Gill’s T20 form in 2025 was disappointing. This year, he scored only 291 runs in 15 T20 matches, during which he did not score a century, let alone a half-century.

If we look at the Punjab team for Vijay Hazare Trophy, there are two in-form players in it in the form of Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh. This will be the first time that Gill will be taking the field for the first time after being expelled from the T20 World Cup squad. Well, Gill currently remains the captain of the ODI and Test team.

Punjab team has been placed in Group C in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26. Maharashtra, Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Chhattisgarh and Sikkim are also included in this group. Punjab will play its first match with Maharashtra on 24 December.

Punjab squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy: Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Harnoor Pannu, Anmolpreet Singh, Uday Saharan, Naman Dhir, Salil Arora (wk), Sanveer Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Jashanpreet Singh, Gurnoor Brar, Harpreet Brar, Raghu Sharma, Krish Bhagat, Gaurav Chaudhary, Sukhdeep Bajwa.

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On Saturday, December 20, BCCI had announced the Indian squad for T20 World Cup 2026. Shubman Gill’s absence from this squad remains a topic of discussion. On one hand, Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar did not give any clear answer. Captain Suryakumar Yadav said that the reason for Gill’s absence was not his form.

A few hours after the announcement of the Indian squad, Indian cricket team head coach Gautam Gambhir was seen at the Delhi airport, where he was asked questions by media reporters about the dropping of Shubman Gill. On this Gambhir left from there without replying.

This video has also become the center of discussion on social media. In which it can be seen that some media reporters asked questions to Gambhir, but he left the garden shaking. Gill’s drop is also shocking because Gill had been the vice-captain of the T20 team for the last few months.

Shubhman Gill was last seen playing in the T20 series against South Africa, where he was able to score only 32 runs in 3 innings. Due to injury, he could not play the fourth and fifth T20 matches. However, according to some reports, Gill wanted to play in Ahmedabad. But the team management had already decided to drop him from the squad.

#WATCH Indian Men’s Cricket Team Head Coach Gautam Gambhir arrives in Delhi

BCCI today announced India’s squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. pic.twitter.com/RbqVtaixyR

— ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2025

What did Ajit Agarkar say on Gill?

Team India’s Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar said on the dropping of Shubman Gill, “Shubman Gill was the vice-captain, but is no longer in the team. Earlier, Akshar Patel was the vice-captain of the T20 team. Talking about continuity, you have to keep many combinations in mind. If your wicketkeeper will bat in the top order, Jitesh Sharma was also an option. Shubman Gill is an excellent player, it is unfortunate that he is out.”

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After Gautam Gambhir became the head coach, the Indian team has lost 9 out of 18 test matches. This poor record continued in Kolkata, where defending WTC champions South Africa defeated India by 30 runs. On the other hand, Shubman Gill’s Test captaincy record is also not very good. Till now, as captain, Gill has lost 3 out of 8 matches and has won four. Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Abhinav Mukund says that the policy of one captain in all formats should no longer be implemented on the Indian team.

Certainly Shubman Gill is moving towards becoming the captain of the Indian team in all three formats. Test and ODI captaincy has already come to him and he is currently the vice-captain of the T20 team. Whereas the captaincy is with Suryakumar Yadav. Let us tell you that Gill had gone to Kolkata directly from the Australia tour, after which, after the neck strain problem in the first test, his workload has also started being talked about, because Gill has played consecutive matches in the last few weeks.

Shubman Gill should not become the captain of all three formats

While discussing a show, former cricketer Abhinav Mukund said, “I think Shubman Gill has the ability to captain the Indian team in all three formats, but I do not think that now Team India should have the same captain in all formats.”

He further said, “It would be a good decision to have a different captain in different formats. Shubman Gill has been given the Test captaincy, there will be a lot of pressure on him. This series (South Africa) is very important for India.”

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Ravi Shastri on Ind vs Eng: The Indian team was leading in the Leeds Test, gave England a huge target of 371 runs. Despite this, Team India lost the first Test by 5 wickets. In view of many aspects like poor fielding, lower order batting flop, the Indian team management had made three major changes in the playing XI of the second Test match. Jaspreet Bumrah also had a name among the players who were out. On being out of Bumrah, India’s legendary player Ravi Shastri had a lot of lactate to the Indian team management.

Ravi Shastri fiercely criticized the decision of the entire team management including Shubman Gill and coach Gautam Gambhir. Shastri said that after the defeat in the first Test, Team India needed to do the counter attack and Bumrah was required to be in the playing XI for the counter attack. He further said that India wants to return to the series by winning the next match, but it has given rest to the best bowler in the world.

Ravi Shastri was unable to believe in the decision to relax Jaspreet Bumrah. He said that the Indian team had got a week’s rest, he was shocked that Bumrah was not kept in the playing XI.

Akashdeep got his place

Akashdeep was placed in the playing XI in place of Jaspreet Bumrah. In fact, Akashdeep was India’s highest wicket bowler in the match. He took 4 wickets in the first innings and 6 wickets in the second innings took a total of 10 wickets in the entire match. Akashdeep’s performance has made it clear to a great extent that the Indian team can win even without Bumrah. However, the Indian team has a mental edge with Jasprit Bumrah’s joining the playing XI only, because Bumrah does not wander from bowling with his accurate length and takes constant wickets.

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Jasprit bumrah’s replacement creations havoc: The second match of the five -match Test series between India and England is playing from Wednesday. In this match, Indian captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir decided to relax Jaspreet Bumrah. Instead of Bumrah, he included Akash Deep in the team. This decision of captain and coach worked. Akash Deep bowled brilliantly on the second day on Thursday. He created panic in a single over.

Two wickets in the same over

The first over of Akash Deep was quite expensive. He looted 12 runs in a single over. But in the second over, Akash Deep created panic. Akash Deep dismissed Docket who scored a century in the last match with a special plan. He put the first four balls in swing in Docket. After this, he put the fifth ball out swing, which caused docket to dodge and his bat hit the edge. Gill caught a good catch in third slip. Docks were out without opening an account in 5 balls.

After this, Akash Deep also sent Oli Pope to the pavilion on the next ball. Pope could not understand the ball of Akash Deep. The Pope felt that the ball was coming in, he tried to put a flick. But after the fall of Akash Deep’s ball, the thorn changed lightly, due to which the Pope’s edge got out and he was dismissed.

Shubman Gill hit a double century, India scored 587

The Indian team was all out for 587 runs in the first innings. Captain Gill scored a brilliant double century for India. Gill was dismissed for 269 runs. Gill hit 30 fours and three sixes in this innings. Apart from Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal played a half -century innings of 87, Ravindra Jadeja 89 runs. Washington Sundar contributed 42 runs.

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Nassain wants shubman gill to bat at no. 3: Shubman Gill is performing tremendously for India as captain. Gill is batting at number four in Tests for India after Virat Kohli’s retirement. During this, Gill, playing at number four, has scored two brilliant centuries in just three innings in the Test series against England. Gill scored a brilliant century in the first Test. After this, he scored a century in the second Test on Wednesday. But despite this, England veteran Nasir Hussain did not look happy. They want Gill to bat at number three.

Gill Natural Number Three is seen- Nasir Hussain

Gill, batting at number four, has scored two centuries in three innings. Despite this, Nasir believes that Gill should play only at number three. Talking on Sky Sports, Nasir said, “I think there are some people like this, he naturally looks at number three player.”

Nasir further said, I seem to be the batsman at the third number in the third number, but the pressure of the captaincy and when the ball wanders around the house, he looks a little weak, so when the ball stops moving around, he has to get into the field, but I feel that his innings was really restrained today. “

Number three position is headache for India

Let us know that after Cheteshwar Pujara left the team, Team India has not received their permanent number three batsman. Gill played 30 innings at number three. But after Kohli’s retirement, now he has started playing at number four. The number three problem remains for the Indian team. The Indian team has given 5 batsmen a chance on this position in the last seven matches. But he could not do anything special. At the same time, Sai Sudarshan got a chance to play at number three in the first Test against England. He flopped completely. In the second Test, Karun Nair was again given a chance. He was able to score only 31 runs in the first innings.

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