Former India player Robin Uthappa has said that Shubman Gill will not be an all-format India captain despite taking over from Rohit Sharma in Tests and ODIs as well. He also believes that Gill will have to earn his spot in T20Is, while predicting that Shreyas Iyer will be the next captain after Suryakumar Yadav in the T20 format.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Uthappa said: “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 are good, but I think they’ll get better for a player of his calibre. I think they will look at Shreyas Iyer as a captain in T20. Shubman Gill, he still has to earn that spot.”

“Especially when have Yashasvi Jaiswal waiting in the wings, Sanju Samson’s spot being shifted, Shreyas Iyer not being a part of the side, waiting in the wings as well. I wish his Asia Cup went better for him for his sake because now Abhishek has run with that one opener slot. Now, the second opener slot is still very much open. As far as I am concerned, Yashasvi can be someone who can come up there. Sanju can certainly come up there,” he shared again.

“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 further added.

Meanwhile, Sunil Gavaskar shared a contrasting reaction to Robin Uthappa, backing Shubman Gill to lead Team India across all three formats in the near future as well.

He recently told India Today, “At the moment, the T20I captaincy is in the hands of Suryakumar Yadav, who just won us the Asia Cup. Shubman was the vice-captain there. So, clearly the message is that he will soon be an all-format captain. Whoever is going to lead has got to be an absolute certainty. He has got to be an automatic pick in the XI. In that case, you can have him as captain. It is not easy to have three different captains. It is not easy for the other players in the team who might be playing all three formats. If a player is good enough to captain in one format, he should be the captain in all three formats.”