Former India batter Robin Uthappa has disagreed with the idea of appointing Shubman Gill as the next all-format captain, adding that the 26-year-old still needed to earn his spot in the shortest format. He further said that Shreyas Iyer could be one of the candidates who could take over from Suryakumar Yadav as the T20I captain in the future. The 30-year-old Punjab Kings (PBKS) was named the new ODI vice-captain for the tour to Australia, which starts at Perth on October 19. “Strict No. I get One Day and Test cricket, and I think he’s a solid pick in Test cricket, and he’s shown us that as well. As far as ODI cricket is concerned, I think his numbers his good, but I think they’ll get better for a player of his caliber. I think they will look at Shreyas Iyer as a captain in T20. Shubman Gill, he still has to earn that spot,” Uthappa said on his YouTube channel on Monday. The 39-year-old spoke about how vice-captaincy did not guarantee a player the captaincy in the future. He admitted that despite getting the T20I vice-captaincy, Gill still needed to secure his spot in the T20I side. “I still think Gill needs to secure his spot first. So, I don’t think it will be taken for granted in a sense where he will be captain or he will be next in line. We know and we’ve seen Indian cricket changes overnight, things change very quickly, narratives change very quickly. Honestly, vice-captaincy in India doesn’t mean very much… Like, you’ve seen a bunch of vice-captains not becoming captain, right?” he said. Uthappa also said that batting talisman Rohit Sharma will play the 2027 ODI World Cup if he remains fit. He added that the former India captain was clear about his batting template and had transformed himself into a more destructive player in the last few years. The 38-year-old was replaced as ODI captain by Shubman Gill when the squad for the Australia tour was announced on Saturday. This will be the first series since 2016, when he will neither have the captaincy nor the vice-captaincy in the national setup. "If he remains fit, then I think he’ll be a part of the next World Cup because, like I said at the start of the pod that I think their templates for success in ODI cricket are clear for them. They know what works for them… “ “However, Rohit Sharma is someone who’s basically upped the ante even in one-day cricket, and I think in the last 3-4 years, he’s played in a much quicker nip, and I think that’s been a transformation of sorts from him. Ideally, how he scored all of his runs in ODI cricket was his first fifty would take about 60-75 balls, and then the next fifty to much lesser and then next fifty to much lesser… The shift in which he approaches One Day cricket has changed and I think that he’s probably found a sweet spot at that,” Uthappa said.
