Mumbai: Like several far-reaching decisions in Indian cricket successfully tried out first in the Indian Premier League (IPL) – such as appointing Rohit Sharma captain, the emergence of Jasprit Bumrah as a world beater and Suryakumar Yadav the T20 batting marauder – the national selectors would hope Shubman Gill’s ascent to Test captaincy will also come good.
Gill will become the fifth youngest Indian captain – counting Ravi Shastri’s solitary Test – when he walks out for the toss at Leeds on Friday in the first of the five-Test India-England series to be broadcast on Sony Sports Network.
Gill cut his teeth as captain for Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL. “From his first year as captain, there has been a massive difference in Shubman the captain in the past twelve months,” Ashish Nehra, GT head coach, told a select group of media of which HT was a part. “He might have been a little shy and introverted before, but he has improved a lot. He communicates better with his bowlers. In between, he has also gained international experience.”
Leading in Test cricket will present an entirely different set of challenges. But Nehra believes he has already shown traits of being calm under pressure. “I personally rate him that’s why we made him a captain,” said Nehra. “He is a quick learner, a confident guy. He has his own mind which is great. I feel in Test and ODI cricket you get a little more time. In T20 cricket, you need to be even more calm. Shubman is very calm for his age, very mature for a 25–year-old.”
For GT, Gill was elevated as captain after Hardik Pandya’s surprise transfer to Mumbai Indians. The first year was a learning curve with Gill himself saying it took him time to compartmentalise batting and captaincy.
Leading India would bring its own pressures. It would help if Gill has runs to show because that is the quickest way to earn the respect from teammates.
“If the top three score runs, that will make life easy for Shubman at No. 4 and the rest of the batting line up. Of course, you feel more confident as a batter when you score runs,” said Nehra. “He will have his own expectations with himself. The way I see it, it’s not just about the results, it’s what sort of cricket they play. There have been recent series in England where India played a lot better than the scorecard suggested. So, it will be key to play good and exciting cricket.”
With India’s batting thin on experience, Bumrah’s role as the leader of the pace pack and how Gill is able to maximise his impact while managing his workload will be of huge interest.
“On Bumrah’s workload, the judge won’t be Gill, it will be the fast bowler himself,” said Nehra. “I have been hearing that Bumrah will play the 1st, 3rd and the 5th Test. But what if it rains in the first Test? You can’t make these plans well in advance. Who knows, he may feel good to play back-to-back Tests.
“On some occasions, we have seen Bumrah picking up five wickets in 12-13 overs. That’s how skilful he is. It’s the bowler who will tell the physio and the captain on how his body is coping. You can’t script this. This is not a movie.”
