“You can remove Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill” - Ashish Nehra makes an interesting statement

Ashish Nehra defended T20I openers Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma, stating critics could "remove" them for Sai Sudharsan/Gaikwad, but warned against judging players after 2-3 games: "It will be very difficult." He urged patience ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026.

By Jack 13 Dec 2025 in Cricket

New Update

Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra has made an interesting comment about the ongoing poor form of the Indian T20I vice-captain and opening batter Shubman Gill, who could score only four runs in two matches against South Africa.

Speaking exclusively to news agency PTI, Ashish Nehra has stated that Gill cannot be judged based on a few poor performances, and time needs to be given for him to get back amongst the runs.

“Look, the player you are talking about. If IPL was 3 weeks away, I wouldn’t be worried. Because you are talking about T20 format. And there are only 2 matches played with South Africa. If I am not wrong. And this is our problem. In such a fast-paced format, whether it is international cricket or IPL, if we start evaluating players like Gill after two-three matches, then it will be difficult," said Nehra to PTI.

“You have many options, if you want to see. You can remove Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill. You can open with Sai Sudharsan and Ruturaj Gaikwad. If you want to remove them, you can do it with Washington Sundar and Ishan Kishan. So options are always there if there are talks about changing players after not good stats, but aise karege to bahut mushkil hogi (If we do this like this, then it would be difficult)," he added.

After the 51-run defeat to South Africa in the second T20I, Team India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate backed the vice-captain Gill, saying the youngster has a lot of quality and it's just a matter of time before he comes good.

“I saw some good signs of a change in mentality on the back end of that Australian tour (in Shubman). Even with these two dismissals in this series, in the first game we asked the guys to go out and attack on the power play, and the wicket was not very great at Cuttack," ten Doeschate told reporters.

“So I will let him go off with that one. Today, he got out to a great ball. This can happen when you are short on form. But we also believe in his class. If you look at his IPL records, he has stacked 600-700-800 runs, and he will come good,” he added.

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