'Just another day…' How Shubman Gill's response to the victory captures his captaincy style

Indian Express

a day ago

There was no Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or R Ashwin. There was no Jasprit Bumrah, the world's best bowler, either. This was Shubman Gill's new team that came roaring back when pushed to a corner. Trailing 0-1 after the defeat in a Test they should have won at Leed's, Shubman's boys, in about a week's time, overcame the Headingley heartbreak to win at Edgbaston and level the series.
Shubman's first Test triumph as captain was about him leading from the front, lifting his deflated team, trusting his players, calling out England's Bazball bravado and in the bargain entering the record books, a habit with him now. Powered by the captain's record-breaking 430 runs aggregate in this Test, and inspired by the seam-duo of Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep accounting for 17 wickets together, the young and largely inexperienced team made more history with their 336-run win. This was India's first-ever Test triumph at Edgbaston and this was the biggest margin of victory on foreign soil.
Over the past five days, Shubman was being seen in a new light. But the captain wasn't getting carried away. In a low-key press conference, with the tone of his voice giving no hint of the scale of his achievement, the captain treated this as just another day.
Has this Test changed the general perception about you? 'As for perception, I don't think about it much. It will change after every match. We don't focus on those things. What people say is not important but what I players think about you is important. It is important that I have the confidence of the team mates and not what people from the outside are saying,' he said.
It's too early to judge Shubman, the captain. Despite this remarkable fightback, questions can be asked about the new skipper's choice of players and tactics. But Shubman at Edgbaston showed that he has a reassuring presence on the field. The 25-year-old doesn't show anxiety that most new leaders experience or press the panic button too early. There is a quiet confidence about him. He gives the feel that his cricketing fabric is truly made of captaincy material.
As the second Test entered its final day Sunday, Birmingham woke up to rains, followed by a 15-minute deluge that had the ground littered with puddles and covers flooded with water. When India, with the goal to take seven wickets, finally took the field after a delay of an hour and forty minutes, Shubman wasn't a nervous boss worried about the deadline. The clouds threatened all day but the calm didn't leave his face or show in his actions.
Conventional wisdom said India would start with Akash Deep and Siraj, the two pacers who had cracked open the England top order late last evening. Instead, he went for Prasidh Krishna. Initially, it was a move to change the end of his pacers but with Prasidh bowling an impressive over, he continued. It was a big thumbs up for the pacer who wasn't having the best of games. Prasidh came up with a much-improved show, his disciplined spell allowing Siraj to get rest and keeping things tight for India's hero of the day.
Akash Deep's change of end also worked as he came with the 'Ball of the day' – an incredible delivery that viciously seamed in to leave England's danger man Harry Brook clueless. Akash Deep aimed for the slight crack outside the right-hander's off-stump to fox Brook.
There was another moment of inspiration close to lunch. With England captain Ben Stokes starting to dig a trench, contrary to his public stand of never playing for a draw, Shubman threw the ball to his pace all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy who had even handed over his jumper to the umpire.
Suddenly, the captain seemed to have had a gut feeling and a rethink. He called the spin all-rounder Washington Sundar. Stokes was uncomfortable against spin but had somehow survived. Shubman gave one more chance to the bowler who was not having the best of games. The captain's SOS came as a timely shot in the arm for Washington. The off-spinner came up with his best of the day, a delivery that had drift and dip. Stokes tried to block the ball but was beaten by the flight and guile.
This was Shubman's biggest moment of triumph and, in hindsight, a captaincy masterstroke. He had forced Stokes, the poster boy of playing Test cricket in an unconventional and entertaining fashion and the captain who doesn't forget to tell the world that they don't do draws, to go into a shell and get out defending a ball.
His 33 from 73 balls was the vital exhibit to prove Shubman had forced England to bat in a way they didn't have the skills for. By scoring 427 for six in the second innings, delaying the declaration, setting England a target of 608, India had batted England out of the game and exposed their one-dimensional cricket.
Though the sample size of his decisions is small, the new captain has a mind of his own. When Shubman was made the captain, there were those who said that he would be controlled by the seasoned coach Gautam Gambhir. At Edgbaston, or at Headingley, the coaches haven't been at the boundary ropes shouting instructions nor have there been frequent messages being sent from the dressing room. Gambhir and his staff are allowing the young captain to flourish, make mistakes and learn.
Those in the know say that back in the day when Virat and Rohit were in the team, the youngsters of their team would talk about when they would be the decision-makers. That time has come and the boys are doing quite fine.