Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting admitted he couldn’t believe Shubman Gill’s omission from India’s T20 World Cup squad. Gill was the team’s vice-captain but had failed to grab his opportunity as an opener, failing to score a fifty in 2025. 

The right-hander had missed the last two T20Is against South Africa due to a foot injury, which he suffered in the nets ahead of the abandoned T20I in Lucknow. Gill scored just 291 runs in 15 innings at an average of 24.25 and a strike rate of 137.26 and thus found no place in the team.

Meanwhile, Ishan Kishan has been picked as a backup wicket-keeper opener as he has been in prolific form in the recent past, scoring 517 runs in 10 matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and led Jharkhand to the tournament’s glory.

“I couldn’t believe that. I mean, I know his recent form hasn’t been great in white-ball cricket. The last time that I really saw much of him play was the Test series against England in the UK, where he batted as well as I’ve ever seen anybody bat. I think, one, I’m surprised, but two, it just shows the depth of Indian cricket,” Ponting said on ICC Review.

“If you can think that someone as good as Shubman Gill doesn’t get picked in a World Cup squad, then it goes to show how many good players they do have,” he added.

The former Australian captain said India has incredible depth in their squad and will enter the tournament as red-hot favorites.

​​“India’s depth around the country, as we know, is outstanding and every ICC event that comes up, you’ve got to put them right up near the top just because there are so many good players to choose from,” said Ponting.

India Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Axar Patel (vc), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh