India fell to England by five wickets in the first Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy on Tuesday, June 24, at Headingley, Leeds, and Shubman Gill didn’t have the kind of start to his Test captaincy that he had hoped for.
Nasser Hussain, the former captain of England, thought Shubman Gill was still figuring things out as a leader and lacked the charisma that his predecessors, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, had on the pitch.
“To be honest, I assumed I spotted someone who was just getting lost. In the first Test match, you have to be really cautious since Shubman Gill has taken over from Kohli and Rohit Sharma. He didn’t, in my opinion, have the same aura on the pitch as the players I listed there. Hussain stated on Sky Sports, “You look down on those two previous names and you immediately see who was in charge of India.”
Hussain believed that more experienced players, like as KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, were attempting to assist the new captain by offering assistance on the pitch. Shubman tracked the ball, according to the cricketer-turned-commentator, and his captaincy approach was reactive rather than proactive.
“There were many captains when I looked down from the commentary position and press box; it was somewhat captaincy by committee, which can occur in your early leadership days because you’re still senior players like Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul wants to do everything in his power to assist you. He seemed to follow the ball a lot, in my opinion. He remarked, “I felt he was more reactive than proactive.”
Hussain also drew attention to the fact that Shubman Gill and other senior Indian team players might have discussed with veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja how to take advantage of the rough on the surface, as his fellow commentators Mark Butcher and Ravi Shastri had advised on broadcast.
Perhaps as a young captain, Jadeja could speak with a veteran spinner and say, “You know the rough is out there.” The ball wasn’t pitching close to the rough, but Ravi Shastri and Mark Butcher were up there showing us where it was. “A little slow, a little wide, bowl in the rough,” Ravi said. It shocked me that none of the captains or senior players approached Jadeja and asked, “Is it possible for us to expand a bit?” However, Hussain acknowledged that Ravi was correct and that they lost the game due to two factors outside his control.
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