Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said that new India Test skipper Shubman Gill will have to work on his Test batting before the upcoming England tour which won’t be easy considering the added pressure that a Indian team captaincy brings. Gill was selected as the skipper for the longest format after Rohit Sharma retired last month. The new captain will also have to deal with the absence of veterans Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin who have also hung up their boots in Tests.
“His white ball form has been incredibly good. He’s got a little bit of work to do, on his Test match batting. And that’s never easy when you’re a new captain, to have to worry about your batting to the degree that he’s going to have to, it won’t be easy for him,” Ponting told PTI on the sidelines of the where he coached to the final.
“I actually named him as captain for the Sydney Test match last summer when Rohit didn’t play that game and there was a bit of an injury cloud over Bumrah, or as that game went on, Bumrah actually broke down in that game. And look, I don’t know Shubman that well. I’ve spoken to him six, eight, 10 times, maybe the last couple of years around different things and around batting and around leadership. He’s done a great job with (), no doubt about that. But he just seemed the sort of guy that the extra responsibility wouldn’t faze too much. It seems like he’s got a really level head on his shoulders. He’s someone that’s going to be around in Indian cricket for another 10 years, Ponting added.
Ponting also said that Gill has to take into account the mental side of batting in Tests.
“…it’s a bit both, there’s some of the great Test players that haven’t had great defensive games, (Virender) Sehwag is probably a great example of that. But if you’re in control of your stroke-play, you don’t have to worry too much about your defence. I mean, obviously it’s (defence) a big part of Test match cricket, but I think it’s more his mental application,” he explained.
“(But) I think sometimes you might just get a little bit either ahead of himself or a little bit lazy in the middle of a test match innings. You can’t afford to do that. You’ve got to be 100 per cent committed to every ball that you face through six or seven hours of every day… I think that’s the challenge for Shubman…,” he added.
