In his first 13 Tests outside Asia, Shubman Gill had only two half-centuries and a highest of 91, which came in Brisbane on his maiden tour in 2020-21. That record was in direct contrast to the numbers he stacked up in India and Bangladesh, where 19 matches yielded five centuries.
Having waited more than four years for his maiden non-subcontinental century, India’s newest Test captain has doubled that tally in 13 days in England. A flowing 147 on his first day as skipper, at Headingley in Leeds, was followed by a brilliant encore at Edgbaston as he registered his highest Test score, an effort notable for the ease with which he handled a potentially tricky situation and the complete control that manifested itself both in solid defence and sparkling stroke-making.
Gill might not have been the obvious favourite to succeed Rohit Sharma when the latter retired from Test cricket at the beginning of May, even though he was the Mumbaikar’s deputy at the Champions Trophy in Dubai in February-March and had led the T20 International side on their 4-1 conquest of Zimbabwe last July. In normal course, it is more than likely that that responsibility would have fallen on Jasprit Bumrah’s careworn but sturdy shoulders, but there isn’t much about Bumrah that is normal, is there?
By the time Rohit called time on his Test career, Bumrah had led India thrice – once in Birmingham in 2022 in a Test held over from 12 months previously when the designated captain was down with Covid-19, and twice in Australia over the winter. In the Perth Test, the first of the series which Rohit missed as he was back in Mumbai awaiting the birth of his second child, Bumrah led from the front, orchestrating an unexpected and commanding victory against all odds. Several weeks later, in Sydney in the fifth and final match, Rohit stood down owing to poor form, while Bumrah broke down and couldn’t bowl in the fourth innings on a spicy surface where his presence might have helped secure a 2-2 stalemate.
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Bumrah’s back has been the source of much concern and conversation in the cricket world – if not perhaps to the same extent as Sachin Tendulkar’s elbow or back, then very, very close to it – and more than anything else, that offending part of the body prevented his elevation as full-time Test captain. Bumrah has undergone surgery on his back in the past and the Sydney mishap was identified as a stress reaction which kept him out of commission for three months. India knew they had to manage Bumrah carefully, look after him so that he doesn’t bowl himself out of contention, and follow medical advice from experts who knew how much load he could take, and at what intervals.
The necessity to preserve the national cricketing treasure dictated that there was no way Bumrah could be the Test skipper. After all, how can you make someone the captain when you know for sure that he won’t be able to play every match? Injuries are a part of every professional sportsperson’s journey but Bumrah’s case being different, he had to abandon whatever captaincy aspirations he might have entertained. Likewise, the decision-makers were compelled to shell any designs to make him the skipper.
For some reason, those strolling the corridors of power chose to overlook the credentials of KL Rahul, still only 33 and with more than a dozen years of international experience behind him. While it might appear uncharitable to Gill, it was under these circumstances that the captaincy was conferred on him. Gill hadn’t had a great taste of captaincy at the first-class level, only five games, but clearly, the men who mattered were impressed with his reading of the game, and with his tactical and man-management skills during his two years helming Gujarat Titans in the IPL.
Gill is soft-spoken but that must not be confused with being pliant or malleable. Right from his junior days, his inner steel has been all too obvious. When India won the 2018 Under-19 World Cup under Prithvi Shaw, Gill was the team’s leading scorer (and the second highest in the competition) with 372 from five innings at an average of 124 and a strike-rate of 112.38. The flamboyant Shaw made the early charge to the senior team, earning a Test debut that same October and marking it with a century on debut in Rajkot against West Indies, but his fall from grace was as meteoric as his rise had been.
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Gill took a little longer to convince the team management that he too deserved his spot in the Test XI. Ironically and interestingly enough, he made his debut at the expense of Shaw, who played himself out of the reckoning with a string of poor scores, an injury and his off-field excesses that didn’t endear him to even a management group willing to give him a long rope.
Looking the part
Right from his first day in Test cricket, Gill looked the part. Only 21 when he donned the India whites in the Boxing Day showpiece event in 2020, he wowed the connoisseurs with a flowing 45 in the first innings and a timely unbeaten 35 in the second when India were chasing 70 for a series-levelling victory after their 36 all out implosion in Adelaide in the pink-ball Test.
Gill’s game was ideally suited to the hard, bouncy Australian tracks, where movement wasn’t anywhere near as pronounced as bounce. His propensity to stay legside of the ball meant he could access the offside with ease, riding the bounce comfortably and using his now-patented short-arm jabs to grand effect as he peppered the square fence. His backfoot mastery also manifested itself in pulls through mid-wicket against the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, singling him out as a batter who had more time than most to play the quickest of bowlers.
A fairytale initiation culminated in a subliminal 91, the highest score of the innings during their historic chase of 328 at the Gabba which gave them a magnificent 2-1 triumph in a series where proven performers dropped off like autumn leaves with each progressive Test. Australia’s accomplished bowling attack made no impression on him when, with a deserved maiden century beckoning, Gill edged an attempted drive off off-spinner Nathan Lyon to Steve Smith at slip. His knock was overshadowed by the exuberance of Rishabh Pant – now his deputy – who hauled his team home with an epochal unbeaten 89.
At the time, few would have predicted this prolonged wait for a first Test ton that did not come in India or Bangladesh. It was frustrating, it was inexplicable. Gill seemed to have all the tools needed to succeed everywhere in the world, not least a strong and versatile backfoot game, so there seemed no discernible reason why, after that tour of Australia, he would have a highest of only 36 in 18 innings away from the subcontinent. One wondered, when he was made the captain in May, if that was the best course of action, given how pronounced his own batting travails were.
Gill set about correcting the anomaly in Leeds, batting at an unfamiliar position on the first day of the series. Occupying the No. 4 position that for nearly three decades had been manned unchallenged by Tendulkar and then Virat Kohli, Gill uncorked a magical 147 full of gorgeous strokes. There was a platform, 92 for two, sure, but there still was plenty of work to be done on a batting beauty. Gill’s comrades in arms during successive stands of 129 and 195 were Yashasvi Jaiswal and Pant. All three made hundreds in India’s 471, but 835 runs in the match weren’t enough to prevent a crushing five-wicket loss in a harsh initiation to the responsibilities of Test captaincy.
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Before Edgbaston, Gill had to make several tough calls. Sure, head coach Gautam Gambhir would have had a massive say in the personnel India put out, but in cricket, the buck generally stops with the captain. Bumrah being rested was almost inevitable, given how limited the turnaround time is between Birmingham and Lord’s, but the continued benching of Kuldeep Yadav, Gill must have known, would be a heated talking point, especially in Bumrah’s absence.
The axing of Sai Sudharsan after one Test to infuse an additional ‘all-round’ option too would come under the microscope. But if Gill was affected by any or all of this blowing up in his face, there simply was no evidence of that.
The track at Edgbaston was as batter-friendly as the one at Headingley, but India’s batting effort on being put in, again, wasn’t as convincing. Rahul went early, Karun Nair fell at the stroke of lunch, Jaiswal threw his hand away after a polished 87, and Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy fell in contrasting fashions, the former attempting an extravagant stroke and the latter offering none. At 211 for five, India were in danger of falling well below par but Gill had faith in Ravindra Jadeja’s batting skills and the veteran campaigner didn’t disappoint.
No false stroke
What was notable about Gill’s seventh hundred was his complete mastery over the situation and the bowling. He hardly played a false stroke and his control percentage at lunch on day two, by which time he had negotiated 288 deliveries, was a staggering 93. He showed urgency in getting to his hundred before the new ball was commissioned with swept boundaries off the last two balls of the 80th over, but there was neither desperation nor unseemly hurry in his method. The unusual, unfettered roar when the second of those sweeps surged past the long-leg boundary reiterated how much this latest edifice meant to him.
Gill has already set a stall as a leader by example. He will become a better captain with a little more time – fortunately, because of the transitory phase, he has a luxury that several of his predecessors didn’t enjoy. A new chapter awaits Indian cricket, with a young captain full of beans, ambition and backing at the helm. How exciting.
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