That India were heading into uncertain territories after the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli was a given, considering the appointment of Shubman Gill as the new Test captain. Two years of IPL leadership with the Gujarat Titans is all that Gill had in his CV, but the selectors and the Indian team management, headed by coach Gautam Gambhir, saw Gill as the future and took the bait. They had very few options to be honest, as Jasprit Bumrah had denied captaincy, citing workload. An overseas assignment on captaincy debut, that too in England, was never going to be easy.
Shubman Gill, the batter, took on the challenge like a duck to water, registering his maiden Test century in the SENA countries in the first Test of the series. The composure, the ramrod straight bat offered every time the ball was pitched on stumps and the patience that let the good ones, sent out an early signal of Gill’s maturity as a Test batter. Captaincy must have done a world of good to his confidence.
But the same, however, did not reflect when it was his turn to marshal his troops on the field. He seemed bereft of ideas whenever there was a partnership. There was no visible ploy against any of the English batters. His field placements at the start of Day 5, when England were 21/0, still 350 runs away from the target, were far too defensive, which allowed Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett to breathe easy. Something as obvious as using the rough created outside the left-hander’s off-stump eluded Gill when Duckett was going all guns blazing.
Nasser Hussain not happy with Shubman Gill’s captaincy
He did receive support from senior pro KL Rahul and vice-captain Rishabh Pant, but former England captain Nasser Hussain believed none of them were up to the mark as far as making a difference with the captaincy was concerned.
“India had 3-4 captaincy in Headingley but none of them were up to the mark,” said Hussain on commentary after England chased down 371 on Day 5 to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
The former England captain had praised Rahul’s leadership a couple of hours ago when the senior batter took over the field placement from Gill and brought energy that also resulted in Shardul Thakur getting a couple of breakthroughs in the same over in the second session. But it all went downhill for India in the final session.
In the post-match show on Sky Sports, Hussain added that Shubman Gill did not have the same on-field aura as Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli and criticised the 25-year-old for following the ball.
“I saw someone finding his way. He (Gill) didn’t quite have that on-field aura of Rohit and Virat Kohli. I thought he followed the ball a lot and was reactive rather than proactive,” Hussain said on Sky Sports.
“When Rohit and Kohli captained, you looked down and you immediately knew who was in charge, but when I looked down in this game, I saw two or three captains, captaincy by committee,” Hussain said, alluding to Gill not taking complete control of the team.
