3 min readApr 20, 2026 08:40 PM IST
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis believes that this season of the Indian Premier League will see Shubman Gill attempt to regain his place in the India T20 squad after he was dropped before the 2026 World Cup which India went onto win at home. The former South African player said that the Indian ODI and Test team captain would also be looking to boost his credentials as a T20 format captain with the Gujarat Titans this year as well.
Du Plessis also spoke about how there is a generation of Indian players who are young and are actively looking at the captaincy role. Talking about Shreyas Iyer and Rajat Patidar, he said that Gill’s work this season would be cut out.
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“Him and a lot of the other guys in the other teams as well, Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Patidar. So, there’s a younger captain generation coming in and saying, listen, ‘I want to put my name in the hat’. And Gill is one of those players. He’s almost gone from flying a season or two ago to be the opener for India to dropping down to almost two or three names down the pecking order,” said du Plessis to ESPNCricinfo.
Du Plessis then spoke about the consistency that Gill brings. The Indian opener may not be as explosive as some of the other names ahead of him, but has been a proven run-getter in the format, and the league in India.
“As a player, it creates that hunger inside of you that you are there to prove a point. You say, I want to play, I want to captain. And he’s been consistent in the IPL. He’s a classy opener, one that’s been always in terms of Orange Caps. We talk about Shubman Gill, his consistency. The question mark around him is always, can he step up where the level of the T20 game is right now in terms of intensity, strike rates? And he certainly has done that,” the 41-year-old went on to add.
“If I look at it from the outside, I go, maybe five or six, maybe seven guys that wants to captain India. So, there’s a real competitive space there where the guys are just saying, ‘no, no, no, I want to captain’. And Gill is one of those guys,” he added.
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Gill and Gujarat have a run of crunch games coming up with matches against Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings all coming in fast.
