Ex-India Star Blasts BCCI For Burdening Shubman Gill After New Zealand Loss: "Biggest Mistake"

Shubman Gill has suffered defeat in each of his first two ODI series as India captain, losing 2-1 away against Australia, and then by the same scoreline at home against New Zealand. Following the series loss to the Kiwis, former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif launched a scathing attack at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Gautam Gambhir-led Indian team management for handing the burden of captaincy in multiple formats to Gill at such a young age.

"The biggest mistake was backing Shubman Gill so heavily," Kaif said, speaking on his YouTube channel.

"The reason Gill is not in the T20I team currently is not himself. The reason is that a lot of load has been put on him. He is a good player. But he wasn't ready to bear all the burden. Just like elevators have a weight limit, Shubman Gill also has a capacity. It is not possible," Kaif added.

Kaif stated that Gill has been overloaded with tasks, leading to increased pressure on the 26-year-old.

"He has been told 'You do the Test captaincy', 'You can become better than Virat Kohli', 'You will break records', 'You will play every format'," Kaif pointed out.

"I feel Gill's career is being shortened due to the pressure being put on him. He has the pressure of getting dropped on him, and he is unable to bat freely in ODIs either. The fluency in his batting is not there.

"Whoever made the decisions to hand Gill so much load must be held responsible," Kaif further stated.

"It would've been smarter to keep Rohit Sharma as the captain, and he should've been asked whether he is mentally tired to not be the skipper. A smart management should've stayed with Rohit and supported him. Moving on from him was the wrong move. They wanted the credit of making the new team, making Gill captain," Kaif said.

Topics mentioned in this article

Mohammad Kaif Shubman Gill Gautam Gambhir Ajit Agarkar BCCI India Cricket Team India vs New Zealand 2026 Cricket