Former South African captain Shaun Pollock believes the struggling pair of Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill will be backed by the management, irrespective of their scores, until the 2026 T20 World Cup. The duo failed once again, despite India convincingly winning the third T20I against South Africa by seven wickets in Dharamsala on December 14.While Gill labored his way to a run-a-ball 28, Surya fell on 12 from 11 deliveries. It made it a combined 33 T20I innings for the two right-handers without a half-century this year.When asked about how long a rope the duo should get in the 11, Pollock said on Cricbuzz (7:36):"I don't know if it'll ever get to a point where they have to be among the runs. It's just about whether you continue to back them or not. There might be a case where they say you guys are secure, you'll start, but we are going to have a look at Sanju Samson."He added:"But I can't see them dropping those two at any stage. If they've backed them this far, because it's been over 30 innings combined without a 50, in normal terms, you would have said we need a change. But the stature they've and the positions they hold in the team as captain and vice captain, it's not going to change."Surya and Gill each average under 11 after three games in the ongoing South African series. While the former has a T20I average of 14.20 this year, the latter has fared only slightly better with an average of 24.25 in T20Is in 2025."When you are not in good touch, those questions are difficult to answer" - Shaun Pollock on Shubman GillShaun Pollock believes the challenging surface in Dharamsala made the task doubly hard for Shubman Gill to score runs despite India chasing a sub-par South African total. Even with Abhishek Sharma going great guns at the other end, Gill remained scratchy throughout his 28-ball stay."It was one of those days where you think this is going to be the day. Abhishek has got us off to a fast start, and I can just bat. But it was not a belter where you can just bat and score runs easily. It was asking questions, and when you are not in good touch, those questions are difficult to answer," said Pollock (via the aforementioned source).He continued:"When you are batting well, your brain is free. You almost just watch the ball and react. You just feel at this stage, it's scrambled. There are a lot of bees buzzing around in there about what I should or shouldn't do. Whereas when you are confident, you just watch the ball and react."With other in-form openers waiting in the wings, Gill may be running out of time to keep his place at the top of the order in T20Is. The Indian vice-captain will look to silence his growing critics in the fourth T20I in Lucknow on Wednesday, December 17.