India lost the first Test to England in Leeds by 5 wickets successfully chasing 371 runs.
In the opening Test match of the five-Test series against England at Headingley, Leeds, former Indian spinner Murali Kartik believes Shubman Gill, the country's new Test captain, lacked command. Despite reaching 835 runs in two innings, India lost the match, giving Gill a difficult start to his Test leadership tenure.
England won the match by five wickets after chasing down the enormous 371-run target batting last.
Following India's defeat, Murali Kartik evaluated Gill's leadership and claimed that the 25-year-old lacked authority as captain because he had other players in his ear. Since there should only be one captain, he believed that there were too many captains in charge of the middle.
"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, but 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 place once or twice, they make suggestions, but it kept happening again and again, which is not a good sign," he added.
Many experts have attacked Gill after India's defeat, claiming that his defensive strategies allowed England to dominate and that he lacked a leader's aura in the middle. On the batting front, though, Gill had a strong game. He became the fifth Indian captain to reach a century on his first leadership, scoring an incredible 147 in the first innings.
As India gets ready to mount a comeback in the second Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham, starting on July 2, captain Gill will need to boost his team's spirits after losing the first Test from a commanding position.