‘He's taken to it like a duck to water': Mark Butcher praises Shubman Gill for captaincy role and making the No.4 slot his own

Indian Express

15 hours ago

Former England opener Mark Butcher heaped praises on India captain Shubman Gill for not only coming good in his leadership role but also making the No.4 spot, once held by behemoths such as Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, his own in the ongoing series against England. Gill has already scored three hundreds in the series as well a double hundred.
'There aren't many jobs in world sport that come with as much pressure and scrutiny as being Indian cricket captain, right? Not to mention you're filling in Kohli's spot in the order, or Tendulkar's spot in the order. So the pressures were enormous. And so far, he's taken to it like a duck to water. He's just looked very, very comfortable, very serene in terms of his temperament,' Butcher said in an interview with PTI.
'And technically, he's played beautifully as well. So what a great start to the series. I mean, he might have some records in his side by the end of it. He's passed enough already. So what's he got? 600 already in the series. It has been an incredible start. And England will have to come up with an answer for him in that middle order, because they obviously feel, that you get past the top three or four…and then there are bounties to be had a bit further down the order,' he added.
He also heaped praises on openers KL Rahul and Yasahsvi Jaiswal who have been in top form in the series.
'Every time I've seen KL play, so we go back to the 2021 series here in England, and he batted at the top of the order with Rohit. So technically, he just looks very, very suited to top-order batting, really. And the fact that he's now going to have a long run, hopefully, in that position, his average will go upwards of 40 very, very quickly because technically he's fabulous. He's a great player to watch,' Butcher said.
'Jaiswal just loves batting by the looks of it. I was talking to Kumar Sangakkara about him, obviously knows him from time at the IPL. And he just says he's obsessed by batting and scoring runs. And he does it in a beautifully pleasing way. For somebody who's so young and so relatively inexperienced to sort of look as comfortable at the top of the order in all these different conditions, is magnificent,' he added.