With Shubman Gill being named India’s 37 th Test captain last week, the upcoming five-Test series against England will be Gill’s first challenge as the Indian Test captain. While Gill does not have much success in terms of runs scored overseas, Indian cricketer Cheteshwar Pujara believes the 25-year-old youngster will see the opportunity as a challenge.
“Does captaincy affect a batsman? I don’t think so. I would say it will definitely motivate Shubman, but at the same time, it’s a different role altogether when you are leading a team and when you’re batting. It’s a different level of concentration. However, your batting doesn’t change whether you are a leader or not a leader. Yes, Shubman hasn’t been very successful in overseas conditions, but I’m sure it’s a challenge a young player like him will look up to. He is mature enough to understand what’s required of him both as a batter and a leader. He’s someone who’s very calm and very composed. I’ve seen him the way he has been leading his team () in the , so he knows what he’s doing,” Pujara said during an interaction facilitated by Sports Network.
In his 32 Test career, Gill has scored 1893 runs at an average of 35.05 with five hundreds and seven half-centuries. Out of the 32 Tests, the Punjab youngster has played 13 Tests overseas accumulating 649 runs with an average of 29.50 with his only overseas hundred coming against Bangladesh. In England, Gill has played only Test in the form of the fifth Test of the five-match Test series against England in 2022 in which he scored 21 runs. Gill also featured in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand at Southampton in 2021, where he scored 36 runs apart from playing in the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval, where he scored 31 runs. Pujara was also of the view that the Indian coaching staff including coach will need to guide Gill apart from senior batsman like .
“The role of the Indian coaching staff will also be very important in terms of giving Shubman feedback and enough data to understand what happens when you are playing at a particular venue. Seniors like KL (Rahul), (Rishabh) Pant will also have to guide him at different stages,” Pujara added.
While Gill was dropped from the Indian team for the fourth Test at Brisbane in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the youngster played in the fifth Test at Melbourne and finished with 93 runs in the three Tests he played in the series. Indian pacer , whose name was also in contention for the Test captain role according to reports, had captained the Indian team in the absence of in the opening Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy before he captained the team in the last Test at Sydney. With Bumrah injured midway in the Sydney Test and sidelined from cricket for three months, Pujara talked about the options for the Indian team management for the role of captain.
“If Jasprit isn’t available for all five Tests of the tour, what are the options we have? If we talk about the current team, Shubman is the one player who can play Test cricket for a long period. Maybe that’s the reason he has been given the captaincy. Yes, he was dropped from one of the Australia Tests and his place in the XI on that tour wasn’t guaranteed. But if we talk about his career, this is one big opportunity for him to lead the team and perform well. For a young player doing the captaincy, he has nothing to lose. Yes, when the team is inexperienced and going through a transition, it becomes difficult for that young captain. At the same time, if he pulls the team together and can win a match or two, the confidence will go up by leaps and bounds, especially if he wishes to lead long term,” said Pujara.
