Opinion: Let us all help Shubman Gill transition from boy-in-charge to man-in-command

First Post

4 days ago

After India's defeat in the 1st Test against England at Leeds, questions are being raised about Shubman Gill's captaincy. But amid criticism, there are also calls for patience as Team India is currently undergoing a major transition phase in red-ball cricket. read more
Does criticism help? Yes, if it is constructive and if the party being analysed takes it in the right spirit. Criticising someone for just the sake of criticism, and conveniently at a time when they are down, is just plain mean and helps no one.
Should Team India have won the first Test vs England at Leeds – a venue they haven't won a Test in since 2002? Yes. Most top teams would not have lost this match after having the opposition on their knees and that too on more than one occasion. The visitors failed to deliver the knockout punch, simple as that. There's absolutely no arguing with that.
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Too soon to judge Gill's captaincy
But to see fingers being pointed at new Test captain Shubman Gill , bringing his leadership capabilities into question after just one match in charge seems rather unfair. Reading a few reports the day after the result at the home of Yorkshire cricket, it feels as if there's more frustration about the fact that the visiting side couldn't get across the finish line, in what was a golden chance to go 1-0 up in the series (which is completely understandable).
Have these critics forgotten that experience is the best teacher? This was literally the first time ever that Shubman was marshalling the troops in Test match cricket. Ask yourself this question - 'were you expecting Shubman to be a top-notch captain, especially while India were fielding, because of the results he has produced as Gujarat Titans skipper in the IPL?' If yes, you need to realign your expectations with reality. This is Test cricket, the highest, most gruelling form of cricket there is, not franchise T20 cricket.
This loss at Leeds really hurts because India could have won this match , for sure. If some of the catches that were dropped were held, if numbers 6-11 had done better than scoring a total of 65 runs, both innings combined, if Bumrah had got more support from the other bowlers in England's first innings or if India's bowling attack overall was more incisive in the English second innings, the result could well have been very different. But let's face the fact – the stable door was left unlocked and the horse has bolted. It's one down, four to go and that's how Team India should approach the rest of the series.
A team in transition
We must remember that the Indian Test team is currently in a state of transition. It's not just that there's no Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin for the first time in 14 years for India in Test match cricket (which in itself is a massive change). For a new captain, who has had no previous leadership experience at senior Test level, to come in and take charge is difficult. Multiple members of the Indian squad which is in England currently are older than Shubman and have more senior India team experience.
Imagine being a 25-year-old, leading a team of older, more experienced men – it's been done before of course, but it's not the easiest thing to do – in any line of work. Let's give the young man some time to settle in. This is where senior players like Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Head coach Gautam Gambhir should throw their complete and absolute support behind Shubman. It was good to hear Gambhir defend Shubman wholeheartedly at the post-match press conference.
Shubman has been pushed into the deep-end. It wasn't done all of a sudden of course (like it was with Virat Kohli in 2014) and he walked into it with his eyes wide open. If Jasprit Bumrah had not picked up the back injury on the last tour of Australia, which showed that he won't be able to handle the rigours of 5 Tests in a series, it would have been India's pace spearhead who would have been leading the team in red ball cricket right now and not Shubman. And the buck always stops with the captain, as it should.
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Kohli took his time too
But Shubman has literally begun his Test captaincy education. Now we need to wait and see if he can go from boy-in-charge to man-in-command and how quickly. And he needs everyone's help to do that. Virat, who is India's most successful Test captain of all time (win percentage of 58.82), lost his first Test match as stand-in captain (Adelaide, 2014) as well as his first Test as full-time Test captain (Galle, 2015). He then went on to win 40 of the 68 Tests he was in charge of.
Just like Shubman (147 & 8), Virat too had a first innings century and a low score in the second (103 & 3) in that Galle Test. Some are comparing Virat's captaincy style with Gill's, asking for Gill to toughen up. Whether he manages to do it the way Virat did depends entirely on his own personality. Two captains with different personality traits can both be successful captains.
Shubman is India's fifth youngest Test captain ever, and also someone who has been handed the reins of the Test team for the first time and asked to begin his captaincy journey with a Test tour of a country where India have not been victorious in a series since 2007. It is imperative for all of us to be patient, to not get frustrated (no matter how difficult it might be) when Test match results don't go our way in the near future.
Most, if not every top team in the world has gone through tough transition phases. Gill will learn, he will evolve. He will hopefully get the help and support he needs. He was put in charge as a long-term option, because there's ample time for him to pick up things and keep getting better. He is a very intelligent young man, and it would be a crying shame if he is attacked from the get-go.
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Positives from Leeds
Let's also try and focus on some of the positives. I wanted to see Shubman fill the crucial number 4 slot vacated by Virat Kohli, who occupied it after Sachin Tendulkar retired in 2013. And the way the Indian captain (who doesn't have a great batting record outside of Asia yet) batted in the first innings, scoring 147 was very, very impressive.
It was also great to see Sai Sudharsan make his Test debut. He might have scored only 30 (both innings combined), but remember the team management has to keep one eye on the future as well. It was so good to see KL Rahul open the batting and shoulder the expectations and the responsibility with so much trademark composed flair and a very well-deserved century.
The fact that the India top 5 scored over 81% of the total runs scored by the team in the first Test (679 of 835 runs), with five centuries, could be seen as the lower order not managing to pitch in at all, of course. But it is also a good sign to see most of the the pure batters of this young team pulling their weight.
Key areas for improvement
However, having said that, counting down to the second Test in Birmingham, which starts on July 2, the big focus has to be on making sure the lower order contributes much more. Gill the fielding captain has to be more proactive and involved. The catching has to improve and also the overall character shown on the field. This is Test cricket. No matter what might be happening, the shoulders can't droop. The body language has to remain positive.
Gambhir has said that the team is yet to decide which two other Tests Bumrah will play. If he is rested for the second Test, the task at hand becomes harder for Gill and vice-captain Pant. To come back from 0-1 down on a foreign tour and that too without the services of your best fast bowler is not a position any team would want to be in. But this also is an opportunity to do something very special. Remember the Test series win in Australia in 2020-21, when the Indian team, which lost the first Test, and was already without their top two first choice bowlers, then lost three more bowlers to injury and yet went on to win the 4-Test series 2-1?
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These are the kind of situations that forge character.
England are beatable
There's no doubt that the current English side is very much beatable in their own backyard. Especially at a time when they don't have the services of viciously fast bowlers like Jofra Archer (who hasn't played a Test match since February 2021 and is currently trying to prove that he is fit for Test cricket), Mark Wood (who underwent a knee surgery and will not play at least the next three Tests of the ongoing series), Ollie Robinson (who is currently persona non grata) and Olly Stone (who is frequently injured).
Maybe the 'management decision' to ask James Anderson to hang up his boots wasn't a great one. The fact that there were as many as four Indian centurions and a total of five centuries scored against the current English bowling attack is not something that will sit well with coach Brendon McCullum or captain Ben Stokes, no matter how much they credit their 'attitude'.
Now is the time for captain Gill and his team to try and learn from the mistakes that were made in Headingley and try and fix as many chinks in their armour as they can – tactical and analytical. Now is the time for the team management to stand firmly behind each and every player and give them the confidence that they can bounce back hard and beat an opponent who might be high on confidence, but one which is also not invincible. Now is the time for the think tank to decide what they need to do differently in Birmingham and if any personnel changes need to be made to the playing XI.
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Now is the time to believe that this series can still be won, no matter what the odds.