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Former India cricketer slams Gill's leadership after Headingley defeat: 'Kohli would not have...'
Shubman Gill faced criticism for being too defensive a leader on debut as India Test captain, with the visitors suffering a five-wicket defeat against England at Headingley despite finding themselves in a dominant position more than once. read more
Shubman Gill's leadership style has been compared with Virat Kohli since the first Test against England in Leeds, in which the former led India for the first time in the red-ball format. Reuters/AP
Newly-appointed India Test captain Shubman Gill has come under fire for his leadership and tactics during the first Test against England at Headingley, which the visiting team ended up losing by five wickets. India ended up conceding the series lead to the Ben Stokes-led hosts despite four of their batters, including the skipper, accounting of five centuries and star pacer Jasprit Bumrah collecting the only five-wicket haul of the match.
While there are multiple reasons for India failing to win the Headingley Test despite finding themselves in a dominant position more than once, including and especially their twin batting collapses, there are those who also believe Gill's defensive style of captaincy is also to blame.
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Manjrekar compares Gill with Kohli after Headingley defeat
And the 25-year-old is already getting compared to Virat Kohli, India's most successful Test captain and one of the game's most celebrated figures, despite having led India in just one Test so far. Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar, for one, felt that India would have targeted getting the Englishmen bowled out by tea on the final day had Kohli been in charge at Headingley.
'Most people felt Shubman Gill went too defensive. But I think he was trying to trap England by cutting off boundaries, hoping the wickets would come eventually,' Manjrekar said on JioHotstar following India's defeat in Leeds.
'I hate to bring Virat Kohli as a comparison, as Shubman Gill is a young captain, but he would not have put such a defensive field. That's different from someone like Virat Kohli, who might say: We have enough runs, I'll get you all out before Tea. Whether he would have gotten wickets with an attacking field is not guaranteed, but he would have been at it.
'Gill doesn't have the same seam attack as England-though they don't have Bumrah but English team has more all-round options. Even with Jadeja, I felt India should've started with a standard field rather than pre-empting reverse sweeps. You want to start with attacking intent-even if only for a few overs-before going defensive. That said, I don't want to be overly critical of Shubman. He's a new captain, and we should be understanding of that,' he added.
India will be eyeing a series-leveling win without Jasprit Bumrah, who will not be playing more than three matches in the ongoing series, in the second Test that gets underway at Edgbaston in Birmingham on 2 July.
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