Shubman Gill carried himself well after the loss in Leeds, as he spoke to Mike Atherton at the post-match presentation. “Dropped catches, lower-order not contributing cost us,” India’s new Test captain was matter-of-factly.
Gill is a very good batsman and led from the front with a brilliant hundred in the first innings. He has a charming personality and speaks very good English. He ticks almost all the boxes to be the next pin-up boy in Indian cricket.
Gill is a greenhorn as a captain and he was never going to throw his teammates under the bus in his first post-match interaction as the skipper. He was rather soft-spoken. “Yesterday, we were thinking of giving them 430, but our last wickets fell for 25,” Gill lamented. “We spoke about the first-innings collapse, (it) happens. We have to rectify that going forward. Chances don’t come easy on wickets like this, but we have a young team. (A) learning one. Hope to improve that.”
So far so good. But hopefully, in the confinement of the dressing room, he wasn’t that sweet and called out the culprits who cost India the game. Coming into this series, Gill needed to assert his authority as a batsman before taking control of the dressing room. The hundred at Headingley should give him enough elbow room to stamp his authority as a leader. And he will have to do that. Else, he will be the incidental captain, playing second fiddle under the shadow of his head coach.
Gautam Gambhir – India have lost seven Tests out of nine under his charge since October 2024 – might be the first coach in Indian cricket with a football-style managerial authority. But if India’s Test form continues to head south, the captain, too, will have to carry the can. Gill needs to be his own man.
How did he fare as a captain in Leeds? Just one Test is too small a sample size and it’s too early to pass a judgment on his captaincy skills. India made a selection blunder, playing Shardul Thakur at the expense of Kuldeep Yadav. The left-arm wrist-spinner is India’s second-best wicket-taking option after Jasprit Bumrah and unless it’s cold enough to make the fingers numb or the pitch is green enough to resemble the Centre Court at Wimbledon, he should play. Assuming that Gill had a say in team selection, he made a mistake. The skipper’s handling of Shardul, however, suggested that he didn’t have much faith in the 33-year-old seamer.
Some tactical errors were made on the field as well, from field settings (even Sunil Gavaskar criticised it once on air) to not having a Plan B for Ben Duckett and his reverse-sweeps. But a young captain, learning on the job, is allowed to make mistakes. It was heartening to see KL Rahul taking a proactive role and assisting Gill when the chips were down.
On a flat surface, India dropped eight catches and conceded soft runs through misfields. That was where the game was lost. Yashasvi Jaiswal alone let go of four chances, and as England were marching towards their victory target, the opener was seen playing to the crowd, doing a jig in front of the Western Terrace.
Gill, as a captain, needs to call out such puerility. He needs to drive home his point as regards team selection and get the combination and personnel right. Else, it’s going to be a long summer for him and India.
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