Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes either Shubman Gill or Jasprit Bumrah are the right players to lead in India in T20Is taking into consideration the 2028 T20 World Cup if the selectors decide to remove Suryakumar Yadav from the leadership role. According to reports, Shreyas Iyer is expected to take over the captaincy baton from SKY.
Meanwhile, Shubman Gill was not part of the T20 World Cup 2026 squad after he could not grab his opportunity as an opener. Gill recently led Gujarat Titans to the final of IPL 2026 but the team could cross the last hurdle against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The GT skipper was able to lead from the front, scoring 732 runs in 17 matches in the season.
On the other hand, Bumrah didn’t have a great season with Mumbai Indians as he could only manage four wickets in 13 matches. However, Bumrah is India’s best bowler and has also shown impressive leadership skills. Manjrekar said one should dwell too much on Bumrah’s fitness as playing consistently in T20Is should not be a problem.
“It does not make sense to Suryakumar Yadav, because, you are talking about the T20 World Cup, quite the distance away now. Jasprit Bumrah is my first choice. Let’s not dwell too much about his fitness and injuries, because this is the T20 format, where he is actually able to commit himself more. So, I believe in T20Is, he will be happy to captain, plus Mumbai Indians might be looking at him as the future leader,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on his social media handle.
“The other person who has put himself in contention now is Shubman Gill. We have to remember one thing, the next T20 World Cup is not going to be in India, and a lot of T20 international matches are going to be played outside India. That is where people like Shubman Gill, with certain batting fundamentals, becomes a really important player in T20Is. In this IPL, he has actually leapfrogged over a lot of other people about the way he went about getting his runs, plus his leadership,” he added.
The selectors are expected to announce the new captain on Saturday.
