Shubman Gill falls for Golden Duck as poor form continues in IND vs SA 2nd T20I

Amidst the loud noise outside the Indian dressing room to open with Sanju Samson in the T20I side, the management continues to keep faith in Shubman Gill, who also stretches his poor record in the shortest format. In the opening game of the ongoing five-match series against South Africa, Gill failed to get his rhythm back after returning from a long-time injury.

In the second game of the Protea series, he was edged into the slip region against Lungi Ngidi for a golden duck. He now has bagged 841 runs in 35 innings at an average of just over 28 and a strike rate of 140.40 with the help of three fifties and one century. His fight is with Samson, who has grabbed 995 runs in 43 innings at 25.51 and a strike rate of 147.40.

See Also: Watch: Jitesh Sharma’s superb stumping dismisses Quinton de Kock during IND vs SA 2nd T20I

However, Gill’s recent record has put the alarm bells ringing before the T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka. In the ongoing year 2025, he has got only 263 runs in 13 T20I innings at an average of 26.30 and a strike rate of 143.72 with no half-centuries.

Shubman Gill continues poor T20I form with golden duck vs South Africa

Due to his poor form, India has struggled to get going in the opening partnership. The responsibility remains too much on his partner, Abhishek Sharma, to unleash his beast mode with the bat. Abhishek and Gill have overall collected 500 runs for the opening stand in 16 innings.

Since the beginning of September 2025, Gill has featured in 14 T20I innings for India and has scored only 263 runs at an average of 23.90 at a strike rate of 142.93, with the best score of unbeaten 47 runs. His contribution for the national side is vital as whenever India loses a T20I clash, his average drops to 8.38 with 67 T20I runs in eight innings at the best score of 31.

Shubman Gill’s year-wise T20I performance 

In terms of breaking the dismissal modes of Shubman Gill, most of them have been caught by the fielders. He has been dismissed by such order 15 times, which is 51.7% of his overall career. The other two most common ways of dismissal have been bowled and leg before the stumps, which took place five times at 17.2%. 

In his three-year T20I career, Gill was awarded the player of the match award only once in T20Is, which was against New Zealand in February 2023. The right-handed batter celebrated his unbeaten 126 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Gill’s overall T20 record is decent with 5384 runs in 170 innings at an average of 37.13 and a strike rate of nearly 140, thanks to six centuries and 32 half-centuries at the best score of 129. But he needs to kick off on the international stage to shut the noise and gain confidence.

The Indian management, under captain Suryakumar Yadav and head coach Gautam Gambhir, decided to give him a long stretch at the opening position by benching Samson. In that method, they also got Jitesh Sharma back into the team in the middle order and with the gloves.

However, they might not be able to continue the combination if Gill doesn’t turn up fire in the last eight remaining T20Is before the ICC event. His next mission will be on December 14 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamshala.