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Team India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate stated that Shubman Gill has been trying too hard to succeed in his leadership role, which might be affecting his batting. He revealed that think tank had a chat with the cricketer in Australia, where the batter was asked to free himself up a bit.
Gill has been struggling for runs in the T20I format. He perished for a golden duck in the second T20I against South Africa in Mullanpur on Thursday, December 11, edging a probing delivery from Lungi Ngidi to slip. While Gill made a sensational start to his Test career as captain, he has looked out of sorts in white-ball cricket. Significantly, the Punjab batter is India's ODI captain and T20I vice-captain.
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At the post-match press conference following India's 51-run loss to the Proteas in the second T20I, Ten Doeschate shared his thoughts on Gill's struggles. He opined that the batter tried to carry the success from England into his T20I game.
"Taking on the captaincy, the way he did in England, and how he led, how much pride he took in that performance, I think an element of that carried over into what he wanted to do in the T20 side. If anything, he was too caring and maybe a little bit too tight," Ten Doeschate said.
"Towards the backend of Australia, there were talks around freeing up a bit more - trying to relinquish that responsibility in that capacity, where you feel like it's all about you and you need to justify your place in the team. We don't want him to do that. We want him to play as freely as he does during IPL seasons," the former Dutch cricketer went on to add.
Ten Doeschate also downplayed Gill's two early dismissals against South Africa. Backing the 26-year-old to come good soon, he commented:
"It wasn't a great wicket in Cuttack and he got a good ball today, which can happen when you are short on form. You look at his IPL record. We believe in his class and that he will come good."
In 14 T20Is in 2025, Gill has scored 263 runs at an average of 23.90 and a strike rate of 142.93, with a best of 47.
"We are certainly not worried about it" - Indian coach on skipper Suryakumar Yadav's wretched run
Apart from Gill, skipper Suryakumar Yadav has also been struggling for runs in T20Is. On Thursday, he registered another low score as he was caught behind off Marco Jansen's bowling for five. Ten Doeschate agreed that Suryakumar hasn't scored big runs for a while now, but asserted that the Indian camp isn't worried.
"Surya is high quality and we have high expectations of the players. If you are going to be India's No. 3, there's pressure on you to score runs. There's been a fairly long string of form now where he hasn't got the scores we like. In isolation, we are certainly not worried about it. The job we want from him is to go out there and attack. He had a lightbulb moment in Australia. Two games, we are not worried about it," Ten Doeschate said.
In 17 T20I innings in 2025, Suryakumar had scored 201 runs at an average of 14.35 and a strike rate of 126.41, with a best of 47*.
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