Virat Kohli Shubman Gill Jasprit Bumrah. Image Credits: AFP/X
Shubman Gill won the prestigious Polly Umrigar Award under the ‘Best International Cricketer’ category for the 2024-25 season at the 2026 BCCI Naman Awards. The Indian ODI and Test captain was also asked an interesting question at the awards, in which he surprisingly excluded senior teammates Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah.
It is worth noting that India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav and Women’s all-format skipper Harmanpreet Kaur were also posed a similar question at the awards, with each cricketer coming up with a different set of names in response.
The question required the players to name one Indian batter and one Indian bowler they would want for the final over of a match.
Shubman Gill picks Rohit Sharma over Virat Kohli
Shubman Gill was recently asked to name one Indian batter and one bowler he would want for the final over of an ODI match. The Indian ODI and Test skipper surprisingly ignored legendary pros Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumran, picking vintage opener Rohit Sharma and new ball paceman Arshdeep Singh instead.
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Praising Rohit Sharma, the 26-year-old responded, “If Rohit Sharma bhai is there till the end, then it will be him” before picking Arshdeep Singh as his go-to final over bowler.
India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, on the other hand, picked Jasprit Bumrah and legendary all-rounder Hardik Pandya as his last-over bowler and batter respectively for a T20I match. Both Bumrah and Pandya also played a crucial role in the recently-concluded 2026 T20 World Cup at home, doing so under the leadership of Suryakumar.
Indian Women’s captain and 2025 World Cup winner Harmanpreet Kaur responded to the question by naming her longtime teammate and deputy Smriti Mandhana, and seasoned all-rounder Deepti Sharma as her go-to batter and bowler respectively.
Shubman Gill wins Polly Umrigar Award
Shubman Gill also won the Polly Umrigar Award for Best International Cricketer for his splendid run in the 2024-25 season. It is worth noting that the prolific right-hander minted over 400 runs in the season in seven Tests at an average of 33.41.
He also piled up 447 runs in just eight ODI innings at an extraordinary average of 63.85. Gill even aggregated over 1,000 runs across the 2024 and 2025 editions of the IPL combined.
Under the Women’s category, Indian Women’s vice-captain Smriti Mandhana won the award for her elite run during the same period.
Shubman to lead Gujarat Titans in IPL 2026
After missing the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Shubman Gill is set to lead the Gujarat Titans franchise in the upcoming IPL 2026 season. The star top-order batter was first appointed as Titans captain back during the 2024 edition of the tournament following the transfer of Hardik Pandya.
For IPL 2026, Gill was retained by the Titans alongside the likes of Jos Buttler, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Sai Sudharsan, Glenn Phillips along with several others.
As per the IPL 2026 schedule, Gujarat Titans will play their opening match of the tournament on March 31 against the Punjab Kings in New Chandigarh.
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