A player whom people are calling the next king of Indian cricket. Just like fans compare Virat Kohli to Sachin Tendulkar, similarly, everyone compares this player to Virat Kohli. Forget comparing, some people are even saying that this player is Virat Kohli’s successor. In this, I am talking about the Indian team’s captain, Shubman Gill.
Whether it was playing a crucial innings of 91 runs in the iconic Gabba Test in 2021, or becoming the youngest player to score a double century in ODIs, or scoring 754 runs as a captain during the 2025 England tour, Gill has shown everyone that he is no ordinary player. Because of this, fans have also given him the tag of “Prince of Indian Cricket”. Apart from this, Shubman Gill scored 890 runs in the 2023 IPL, which is the second-highest in a single IPL season.
But! But! But! Being Shubman Gill is not that easy either. The official transition period in the Indian team has begun. This is a phase where the most controversies happen. In the past, we have seen how captaincy was stripped from some captains without any communication. On 4th October 2025, Rohit Sharma was stripped of his ODI captaincy, and in his place, Shubman Gill was made the new ODI captain. This decision started controversies everywhere. On one hand, fans were already frustrated by the Gautam Gambhir era, and meanwhile, this news arrived, which literally added fuel to the fire burning inside the fans. And because of this, some fans are saying that Shubman Gill became captain due to favoritism and that he is overrated.The last time a transition happened, it is considered the smoothest transition to date. Because without any controversy, the captaincy was transferred from MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli. But the recent transition was nothing like that. Controversies, hatred, doubts-it included everything. And we can see the effect of this on Gill’s recent performance. And because of this, he was not even selected for the 2026 T20 World Cup squad. So now the question is, is Shubman Gill staying in the team only because of favoritism? And will he ever be able to go from being a ‘prince’ to a ‘king’? So today we will look into “Is Shubman Gill the next big thing in Indian Cricket?”
The year 2018, in which the Indian Team won the Under-19 World Cup, that team had some players who are performing very well in international cricket today. Like Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, and the player of the tournament, Shubman Gill. Throughout the tournament, Shubman Gill performed exceptionally well. Whether it was the 86-run innings against Bangladesh in the quarter-finals, or the unbeaten 102-run innings against Pakistan in the semi-finals. Due to this performance, KKR bought him for 1.8 crore rupees. He scored 203 runs in 13 matches that season, which included a half-century. In 2019, during the New Zealand tour when Indian Captain Virat Kohli was rested for the fourth and fifth ODIs. Then, Shubman Gill made his debut for the Indian team. From his debut in this series, he could not perform anything special. In the fourth match, he only made 9 runs. And in the fifth match, he got out after making just 7 runs.
Instead of getting demotivated after such a performance, he focused on improving himself. At the age of 20, by becoming the captain in the Deodhar Trophy, he broke the previous record of Virat Kohli of being the youngest captain. After this, he became the highest run-scorer for KKR in IPL 2020 by scoring 440 runs. On 26 December 2020, he made his Test debut for the Indian team, and that too in none other than the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. There, he replaced his Under-19 Captain, Prithvi Shaw. In his debut match, he scored a total of 80 runs. At this point, the series was tied at 1-1. This was the same series in which India was bowled out for 36 runs. Virat Kohli was not a part of this series after the first match. And now, the last match of this series was being played. In this match, Shubman Gill did something that no one was expecting from him. In the fourth match, when India had to chase a target of 328 runs, after Rohit Sharma got out early in the beginning, Gill built a partnership of 114 runs for the second wicket with Pujara. And he himself played a crucial innings of 91 runs. After this, due to Rishabh Pant’s innings of 89 runs, India won this historic match.
Vivek Rajdan (Commentary): “Tuta hai gaba ka ghamand” (The pride of Gabba has been broken).”
India wins the 2020 Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1. For Gill, the years 2021 and 2022 were like a roller coaster ride. Because in 2021, when England came to India, his performance in that series was nothing special. In four matches, he scored 119 runs with an average of 19.83. And he could not perform well in the 2021 WTC Final either.But from 2022 onwards, things started turning in his favor. In the 2022 IPL, he scored 483 runs, and in that same season, he won his first IPL title with Gujarat Titans. Finally, in July 2022, Gill made a comeback in ODIs against the West Indies. Before this, he had played an ODI match in 2020. In this 3-match ODI series, he scored 205 runs. And because of this, he also became the Player of the Series. After that, in August 2022, he scored his first ODI century against Zimbabwe. Then, in December 2022, he also scored his maiden Test century against Bangladesh.
After this comes the year 2023, which was a golden year for Shubman Gill. Due to his consistent performance throughout the entire year, he was literally dominating world cricket. That was the exact point when people accepted that he is Virat Kohli’s successor. In January 2023, he hit a double century in an ODI against New Zealand. But that was no ordinary double century; he became the youngest player to score a double century in ODIs. And in that same year, he made his T20I debut. In his sixth match, he scored his first century. By playing an innings of 126 runs, he also broke the record for the highest total by any Indian cricketer in T20Is. In the 2023 IPL, he was performing so well that at one point it felt like he would easily break Virat Kohli’s record of 973 runs. He scored a total of 890 runs in 17 innings with an average of 59.33. Along with 4 half-centuries, he also scored 3 centuries. If any batsman dominated the IPL after Virat Kohli, it was Shubman Gill. In the 2023 Asia Cup, he scored 302 runs in 6 innings with an average of 75.5. And he became the leading run-scorer of the entire tournament. Fans were so happy with this performance of his that everyone felt he would perform just like this in the World Cup happening a few months later.
But! But! But! Things do not always happen the way we think. Actually, just before the World Cup, he got dengue. And because of this, he missed the first 2 matches of the World Cup. After that, he made a comeback in the World Cup, but that consistency was no longer there in his performance. He did not score a single century in the entire World Cup. Yes, he did perform quite well in a few matches. But in the final match, which was at his IPL team’s home ground, Narendra Modi Stadium, he got out after scoring only 4 runs. And the Indian team could not win this World Cup.
Ravi Shastri (Commentary): “And Australia win the world cup for a sixth time! And in front of a 1,20,000 people, they are upstaged the home team [India] in a magnificent fashion.”
By the way, he scored 354 runs in 9 matches with an average of 44.25. But the form he was in before dengue, if that form had happened in the World Cup, perhaps these stats would be something else and India would have won the World Cup too. By the end of the year, he had become the number one ODI batter. With 1584 runs, he was also the highest ODI run-scorer of that year. After giving great performances in International, Domestic, and IPL people gave him the tag of “Prince of Indian Cricket”.
2024 was a mixed year for Gill. Because under home conditions, he was scoring runs well. But in overseas conditions, his performance was nothing special, and on top of that, his every innings was being compared to his best year, 2023. In IPL 2024, he became the captain of Gujarat Titans. And in that season, he could only score 426 runs. Due to this form of his, he was not selected for the 2024 T20 World Cup squad. After the T20 World Cup, when the Indian team went to Zimbabwe to play a 5-match series, Shubman Gill was made the captain for that series. There, he scored 170 runs in 5 matches, which also included two half-centuries. After this, when the Indian team goes to Australia in 2024 to play the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Gill fails to score runs there as well. In fact, he was dropped from the fourth Test match. And Abhishek Nayar, while explaining the reason for this, said that Rohit Sharma had to open, and the Indian team needed an extra spinner. So, Washington Sundar was played in his place. He scored a total of only 93 runs in 5 innings across the entire series. Because of this, everyone became convinced that Gill is not as effective in overseas conditions.
But did he know that when the Indian squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy was announced, seeing it, everyone Shocked because despite having players like Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul, the team management makes Shubman Gill the vice-captain of the Indian team. And because of that, everyone starts to feel that Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar are promoting favoritism in the Indian team. Besides this, Harshit Rana was included in the squad instead of in-form Mohammed Siraj. Anyway, Shubman Gill scored 188 runs in this tournament at an average of 47 in 5 matches. He also scored a century against Bangladesh. And India wins the 2025 Champions Trophy. After this, Gill performs well in the 2025 IPL. He scores 650 runs in 15 matches. And under him, Gujarat Titans reaches the playoffs.
During the IPL, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retire from test cricket. And due to this, the team management makes Gill the Test captain. And from here, things start turning in Gill’s favor. In 2025, when the Indian team goes to England, Shubman Gill was the Indian team captain. And from here, all things start turning in Gill’s favor. Where people were trolling him for his overseas performance, there on that England tour, he scores 754 runs in 10 innings at an average of 75.40. In fact, he scored 430 runs in the second test match 269 runs in the first innings and 161 runs in the second innings. Gill made many records on this tour. For instance, as an Indian captain, he scored the most runs in England, which is 754. Which makes him the second-best captain in history after Don Bradman, and his 269-run innings in the second match against becomes the highest individual score by any Indian player in England. By the way, this series ends in a 2-2 draw. But honestly, this entire series was quite cinematic. Whether it was that close encounter at Lord’s or winning by 6 runs at The Oval. After this series, Shubman proved to everyone that he can score runs in every condition.
But after that comes the 2025 Asia Cup, which was not very special for Shubman Gill. He scored only 127 runs in 7 innings. The Indian team wins the Asia Cup, but now everyone starts questioning Shubman’s place in the T20 team. Some people believed that Shubman Gill is in the T20 team only because of GG era. Amidst all this, on October 4, 2025, an announcement is made that Shubman Gill will captain in ODIs instead of Rohit Sharma. While explaining the reason for this, Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar said that it is practically impossible to have three different captains for three different formats in terms of planning. After being made captain, Gill was receiving criticism from everywhere. And it is possible that because of this, he could not perform well on the 2025 tour of Australia. After this, when South Africa comes to India to play a Test match series, we lose a Test series at home to them after 25 years. And after the first Test match, Shubman Gill gets ruled out of this series due to injury. He made a comeback in the T20 series against South Africa, but once again, he could not perform well in T20I, and his poor form in T20I An execution reason was made because of which he could not make his place in the 2026 T20 World Cup squad. Now, this thing is shocking because Shubman Gill was India’s T20 vice-captain, and not playing your vice-captain in the T20 World Cup was truly a very shocking decision.
So now the question is, can Shubman Gill become the King from the Prince? Before giving the answer, let me tell you that this is my personal opinion. If we look at Gill’s current performance, he is playing quite well in Tests. In the ODI series that recently happened against Australia, Gill could not perform extraordinarily, but if we look at his overall performance, he performs well in ODIs too. Look, no doubt he is performing well in the IPL as well. But if we look at his stats in T20Is, they are nothing special. In fact, he scored his last half-century against Zimbabwe in 2024. And after that, his performance in T20Is has not been that consistent. So, if someone has to take the place of a player like Virat Kohli, they will first have to perform consistently in all three formats. If you ask me right now whether Gill can ever become the King? Then my answer is no. Look, the God of cricket was only one (Sachin Tendulkar), and the King will also remain only one (Virat Kohli). Maybe this statement might hurt some of you. But I am telling the reality. Is Shubman Gill the next big thing in Indian cricket? The answer to this is yes. Because the potential he has will definitely make him a very big cricketer in the future. And I hope he overcomes the difficulties he is currently facing.
What do you think, can Gill become the King from the Prince? Do let me know in the comment section.💬
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