'The first thing you should make the team on merit'- Sanjay Manjrekar on Shubman Gill's vice captaincy

The inconsistency of Shubman Gill has been a major problem for Indian cricket right now. The young India batter has been giving underwhelming performances in all three formats of the game which has led to a lot of experts and pundits criticising him on whether he deserves a spot in the team.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy has also been a disappointing campaign for the right-handed batter where he could only score 93 runs in three matches at an average of 18.60. This is in complete contrast to Gill’s performance in the 2020-21 series where he was one of the best players for the team. Former India top order batter and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has also shared his views on his performances and was also critical on whether he deserves to be the vice-captain for the team and said the vice-captain should be chosen on the merit of his performances.

Also Read: Former opener Kris Srikkanth calls Shubman Gill 'an overrated cricketer'

“I have no idea. But I know who shouldn't be, and I won't say it. There are some obvious guys you wouldn't want. The first thing you want the vice-captain should walk into the team based on his own performances. For the moment, you are focusing on the England series, and you are expecting Bumrah to be fit, and he becomes your captain." Manjrekar said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“There was some talk about Shubman Gill being there in Australia as the vice-captain, and look what happened. Bumrah, thankfully, was made the captain, with Rohit Sharma missing the first Test. Look where Gill's career is right now. The first thing you should make the team on merit," Manjrekar added.

Speaking of Gill’s performance in overseas Test cricket it has not been so promising according to his standards. In the 32 matches he has played outside India so far he has only scored 1893 runs and has an average of 35.05. This shows that though Gill has some great numbers at home his performances outside the sub-continent have lacked consistency.