"Too Many Captains": Shubman Gill Receives Brutal Criticism After Loss Against England
Former Indian cricket team spinner Murali Kartik was not convinced by Shubman Gill 's captaincy in the first Test encounter against England. India failed to defend 371 runs in the fourth innings as the Gill-led side slumped to a 5-wicket loss. Kartik pointed out that Gill lacked authority on his debut as India captain and there were a number of players who were in his ear during the match. He explained that the appointed captain needs to take charge and senior players should just give suggestions.
"We can look for excuses but the problem is that we scored 835 runs, one bowler picked up five wickets and despite that India lost the game by five wickets. I felt as if there were too many captains. I could not understand that. Sometimes KL Rahul was suggesting things, Rishabh Pant was suggesting things, Shubman Gill was doing it too, who is the actual appointed captain. I could not understand these signals being made. There is one captain," Kartik said on Cricbuzz.
"I understand that if a senior player sees someone out of the place once or twice they make suggestions but it kept happening again and again ,which is not a good sign," he added.
Gill's tactics in the first Test against England have drawn flak after the visiting side's five-wicket loss with former skipper Nasser Hussain stating that he "didn't quite have the on-field aura of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli".
India lost the opening Test despite five of their batters scoring centuries, as England chased down 371 in the fourth innings to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
It was baptism of fire for Gill in his first Test as skipper since succeeding the now-retired Rohit Sharma, and Hussain said the youngster was "reactive rather than proactive" as a leader.
"I saw someone finding his way. He (Gill) didn't quite have that on-field aura of Rohit and (Virat Kohli). I thought he followed the ball a lot and was reactive rather than proactive," Hussain said on Sky Sports.
"When Rohit and Kohli captained, you looked down and you immediately knew who was in charge but when I looked down in this game I saw two or three captains, captaincy by committee," Hussain said, alluding to Gill not taking complete control of the team.
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