Team India's vice-captain Shubman Gill sheds light on 'toxic competition' with his childhood friend Abhishek Sharma. In a recently concluded T20I series against England, Abhishek smashed a tremendous knock of 135 runs off 54 balls in the fifth match of the series. In the last match, Abhishek surpassed the record of Shubman Gill for the highest individual T20I score by an Indian.
Abhishek scored the second-fastest T20I hundred for India on Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium against England. He scored the century in just 37 balls.
When Gill was asked about the competition from his mates, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Abhishek, he said,
"Abhishek is a childhood friend of mine. Jaiswal is also a friend; I don't think there is any toxic competition between us."
India's vice-captain also stated that they play for the country and want to perform in every match, and he doesn't wish that this particular player should not perform.
"Obviously, if you are playing for the country, you want to perform in every match and not think that 'I wish this guy doesn't perform.'. You are playing for the country and for the team, and whoever performs, you congratulate them."
Talking about India's loss in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2025 against Australia, he said that one series can't define the form of a team. The team has done a lot of good things in the past, performing consistently.
He said,
"I think one series can't define the form of a team. We have done a lot of good things in the past, consistently and continuously. Definitely, we have not done what we wanted to do in the Australian series. But still, I think we have done some things right. We had the chance to draw and even win the series. If we had won the series or even managed to draw it, we would not have been talking about this."
"It is unfair to criticize the team's performance. We have won a World Cup (T20), and prior to that, we reached the final of the ODI World Cup. We must consider those performances as well."
The 25-year-old believes that the upcoming three-match ODI series is very good for the preparation of the Champions Trophy starting from February 19.
"I think we are playing against a good side. We are not taking this as a practice for the Champions Trophy; I think it is a very important series for us, and we are looking to dominate and win the series."
According to the latest updates from the team, Varun Chakravarthy has been added to India's ODI squad for the England series. As the BCCI has updated the squad against England, there was nothing mentioned about the star pacer Jasprit Bumrah.