Versatility, by virtue of what it signifies, is attractive to the universe at large. In a nutshell, it denotes the ability to perform a gamut of roles.
For a cricketer, versatility in the modern world means the ability to excel across all three formats. A bowler must have the wherewithal to strike with the red or pink ball in Tests, and stem the run-flow in the limited-overs game. A batter must have the gears to score runs when a duel is stretched to five days as when it is condensed to 20 overs.
Among the young Indian batters teeming with promise, only Shubman Gill has featured in all genres over the last 12 months. The Test and ODI skipper was ubiquitous in the latter half of 2025 before being dropped from the shortest version ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup. Rewind to the first week of October as a case in point. Even as one Indian team was stationed in Japan with the aim of retaining gold in the Asian Games’ T20 competition, another was kicking off earnest preparations for next year’s ODI World Cup in southern Africa with a home series against the West Indies. Concurrently, India-A was facing Australia-A in a four-day contest in Puducherry while a Rest of India outfit, comprising six players who have represented the country, was jostling with Jammu & Kashmir in a five-day Irani Cup fixture in Srinagar. Among four teams catering to different durations, multiple players with all-format credentials lay scattered. “Ideally for any coach, it is better that as many players as possible play all three formats. Continuity is very important. But regardless of what the coach and selectors want, there are going to be very few all-format players going forward. You will have to keep rotating your players, whether it is spinners or fast bowlers. Undeniably, for the game is enriched when individuals transcend a specific format and sprinkle magic. Specialists, of the ilk of Cheteshwar Pujara and Alastair Cook in white flannels or Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine in coloured clothing, have their place in the sun, but the allure of greatness coming with no caveats is far more powerful. While a taxing schedule inconvenienced the suave stroke-maker — Gill had to captain India in a Test against the West Indies in Ahmedabad three days after the Asia Cup final against Pakistan in Dubai — the fast-changing demands of the T20 game also became a factor. It provides food for thought: the influx of greater aggression in the five-day game may convey the impression that the methods across the three modes overlap more than ever before, but the needle is moving at such a blistering pace in T20s that even someone with Gill’s all-round prowess could be perceived to be a tad archaic.
For Test preparation, you will have to give your batters breaks as well from white-ball cricket,” he told broadcaster JioStar in September.
