The fun has gone for frazzled India as Shubman Gill's passivity leaves teammates drifting

The Guardian

2 days ago

For 22 overs on the third morning India toiled in the field, rotating through their bowling options, none of them working. Well, all but one of their bowling options: Washington Sundar remained unused, occasionally performing solo warm‑up exercises in the outfield only to be left there to cool down again. But then the right‑armer is primarily known for his ability to generate drift, and drifting was the one thing India were doing pretty effectively already.
Finally, he got his chance. By then England's innings was 68 overs old and India's advantage had been whittled from 358 to only 53. In his three overs before lunch, with a tired ball, Washington brought some energy and some hope. Not with immediate reward, but enough to bring the slightest hint of a skip to his teammates' trudge from the field. He returned after lunch to dismiss Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, but in doing so it was hard to know if he was helping India solve their problems, or simply highlighting them.
On Thursday they had mystifyingly chosen to give their startlingly pedestrian debutant Anshul Kamboj the new ball over Mohammed Siraj – who was later to add injury to insult – and sidelining for so long the bowler who was to prove their most dangerous was another indication of some seriously ditsy decision-making. And when sheer bad luck seems so intent on bringing a team to its knees, it is best not to give it a helping hand.
Shubman Gill was named India's new captain in May, the team reeling from the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. One imagines he travelled to England for his debut series in the role hoping to lead a new-look team through a tour that would still be spoken about years from now. And so it might, though as it seems at this point, towards the end of the fourth Test, most likely as actors talk of Macbeth – very cautiously, at the risk of triggering bad memories and ominous superstitions. Four lost tosses. A string of injuries, including a vice‑captain who damaged a hand in one game and a foot in the next. One convincing win, two narrow defeats. And then this.
It is not hard to identify the moment for which England will remember this day: it will for sure involve Joe Root, either proudly waving his bat on completing his century, or meekly raising a hand to acknowledge the fans as he hurtled up the ladder of all-time Test run-scorers. But for India there are plenty of choices, each grimmer than the last.
It may be the one, just after they took the second new ball, when Sai Sudharsan returned from a brief trip to the dressing-room, ran up to Gill, leaned into his ear to deliver a message – and as he did so Jasprit Bumrah, their premier bowler, left the field for what turned out to be a full half-hour. Or the one soon after Bumrah returned, when Siraj started limping in the middle of an over and, having completed it, was also forced off. Or when Bumrah finally felt ready to bowl again, handed his hat to the umpire, was told that because of his time away he wasn't allowed to, and put his hat back on. So many plans, and each of them, one after the other, shredded.
So perhaps Gill had enough to think about, without also shouldering the responsibility of rousing and inspiring a tiring and increasingly dispirited team. But watching him closely in the field, the most obvious thing is the complete lack of obvious things.
Occasionally, perhaps, he will gently shift a teammate's position, but apart from the odd weary handclap he says little and does less. Maybe the huddles with which India start each session are where he comes alive, but there is little there for the public to see – and repeatedly the field placings when there was a new batter at the crease, and with them an opportunity to create some pressure, seemed as passive as the captain himself.
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It is too soon, of course, to write off the 25-year-old, and having banked 619 runs in the series it can hardly be considered a failure, but inevitably when a captain does so little to answer the questions the game throws at him he will be subject of a few himself. Certainly, if you observe the players, their behaviour on their own and around others, then KL Rahul, who wears the No 1 on his back and also, it seems, in his heart, is the one who looks to be leading.
The day did not in the end develop into the full-blown crisis that was at one stage threatened. Most important, whatever ailed Bumrah and Siraj, both recovered to bowl in the final session, and take a wicket apiece in doing so. But the best that could be said of it is that it might have been worse. For England, the sun shone. For India, the fun's gone.