Setback for Sanju Samson as Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma get vote as India's openers for Asia Cup 2025

"For me, I would say now that Shubman is the vice-captain, he definitely plays along. So that we have a left-right combination," Deep told RevSportz. "At 3-4, I can't look beyond Surya and Tilak at this point. Again, left-hand, right-hand combination. I think in this format, if you have that option, you've got to look at keeping that going as long as possible through an innings."

India opened with Sanju Samson and Abhishek in their last three T20I series, where Gill was not part of the squad. Now that the Test captain is back and that too as vice-captain, it is unlikely that he would not open the batting. While Sanju Samson remains a popular figure among fans, Deep was clear in his preference for Jitesh Sharma if Samson cannot be accommodated in the top order.

"If you can't make a place for Sanju in the top 3, then it becomes a little difficult. So, if it comes down to 5-6-7, I think I'm going to pick Jitesh over Sanju. He is a better option than Sanju."

He also backed Gill not just as an opener but as a long-term anchor for India in T20Is, drawing comparisons with Virat Kohli's role in multi-nation tournaments.

"If you look at multi-nation tournaments, you generally don’t have 200-220 games, rather you have 160-170 games and that’s where you need one in your top order who can hold the innings together which Virat has done superbly over the years," Deep said.

"You need one guy like Virat, who can play in different situations in different conditions, not necessarily always 200. While you have a Suryakumar Yadav, a Tilak Varma, a Yashasvi Jaiswal, an Abhishek Sharma, you also need one guy to keep it all together from one. I think there are a couple of names, one is Shubman, another is Shreyas Iyer. If they go with Shubman, it is fine and I think he will do that job really well."

With the Asia Cup being a key preparatory step towards the T20 World Cup, Deep called for continuity in selections and acknowledged the tough choices selectors face.

"Every time you take someone, the question would be ‘Who do you drop then’? I myself have asked similar questions and somebody said, ‘Rinku Singh’ so I said he (Shreyas) is not going to bat at No. 6 and do the job of what a Rinku or a Shivam Dubey would do. You can’t really compare apples and oranges."

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