Shamik Chakrabarty
A couple of days ago, Shubman Gill, while channelling his inner Sunny Deol, had asked Zak Crawley to grow a pair. The boot is on the other foot now. The England opener proved to be a violet that didn’t shrink. He was absolutely well within his rights to take his time to ensure his side didn’t face an extra over at the end of the third day. The India captain, on the other hand, turned out to be a shrinking violet in the face of England’s hostility.
When Gill came out to bat in India’s second innings, on the heels of Karun Nair’s weird dismissal — he doesn’t look to be an international player at the highest level — the hosts welcomed him with some choice words. It was expected. Gill had given it to them and he was expected to take it as well. The India skipper fizzled. In fact, he looked completely rattled. Gill departed for six, and the false shot percentage was more than 20 during his nine-ball stay at the crease.
“Gill suddenly looking tentative last evening had a lot to do with the hostility he got at the crease from England. Virat (Kohli) performed better, the angrier he got. (MS) Dhoni the exact opposite. Gill must decide what gets the best out of him as batter, calmness or anger,” Sanjay Manjrekar, the former India batter, posted on X (formerly Twitter).
On the face of it, Gill panicked and it had a trickle-down effect. Maybe, it was the reason why his team crawled into a shell and moved at less than 2.5 runs per over, chasing a fourth-innings target of 193. India looked fearful despite overloading the side with batting all-rounders, at the expense of the world-class Kuldeep Yadav. Only Rishabh Pant tried to take the attack to the opposition. But after hitting a couple of fours, he found himself at the receiving end of a peach from Jofra Archer.
“India panicked, lost too many wickets (on the fourth evening),” said Michael Vaughan, the Ashes-winning former England captain, on BBC Sport. And it allowed England to win the third Test by 22 runs, a match that “India should have won”.
Compare Gill with his English counterpart, Ben Stokes. Lord’s was privileged to witness two warriors on the final day. Stokes was one of them, while Ravindra Jadeja represented valour on the Indian side. England’s captain fantastic pushed the limit and bowled 9.2 overs at a stretch in the morning on Day 5. He followed it up with a 10-over spell post-lunch. Message came from the team’s consultant, Tim Southee, to stop. Stokes ignored it. “Nothing was stopping me,” he said at the post-match presentation.
Stokes is arguably the greatest all-rounder to grace the game since the days of the Fab Four of Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee. Apologies to Jacques Kallis’ fans, but leadership qualities are included in the whole package. The 34-year-old makes things happen — from scoring 77 runs and taking five wickets over two innings to effecting the game-turning run-out of Pant in the first innings.
Stokes, also, tactically schooled Gill. Starting off Archer on Day 5 was a case in point. Brydon Carse had jolted India’s top order the night before. But Stokes gave the newish ball to Archer instead, which proved to be a masterstroke. The fast bowler accounted for Pant and Washington Sundar to sap the life out of India’s batting.
“Carsie bowled an unbelievable spell last night; two massive wickets there. But in my gut, because of the day, six years ago, we won that World Cup… I just thought it was set up for him to do something that Jofra does,” Stokes told BBC Sport after the game.
That’s what good captains do; in tight situations they go with their gut. It was the gut that had prompted Dhoni to promote himself up the order ahead of Yuvraj Singh in the 2011 World Cup final. As regards Gill, there is a school of thought — former England fast bowler Stuart Broad supports this — that he should have held Pant back in a tricky chase, sending Jadeja or Washington ahead of him instead. But in terms of tactical nous, the India captain so far has failed to impress.
Taking a leaf out of Stokes’ book would serve Gill well, captaincy-wise.
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