India`s Test skipper Shubman Gill has returned to the T20I fold after almost a year and will be Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy at the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates between September 9 and 28. 

Jaiswal on standby 

The Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel named a 15-member squad for the Asia Cup in Mumbai on Tuesday. Speedster Jasprit Bumrah, who played only three matches in the recently concluded five-Test series against England due to workload management, is now fully fit and ready for the white-ball challenge. However, Test opener, Mumbai boy Yashasvi Jaiswal, found himself among the five standbys, while Mumbai’s middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer was left out. 

Gill, who scored 650 runs while leading Gujarat Titans to the IPL-18 Playoffs, and later smashed over 750 runs on the England Test tour, last represented the country in a T20I against Sri Lanka on July 30, 2024. “Gill last played T20Is in Sri Lanka [in July 2024], when I was captain and he was the vice-captain, and that’s when we started a new cycle for [the next] T20 World Cup.