Shubman Gill's stint as India's Test captain began with a five-wicket defeat against England in Leeds, but he received backing from former cricketer Mohammad Kaif.
Gill, who was handed the Test captaincy after Rohit Sharma’s retirement last month, slammed a brilliant hundred in his maiden assignment. While he managed to pass the batting test, the loss at Headingley kept him under the scanner.
The Indian bowlers let the team down as the hosts chased down a daunting target of 371 runs to claim a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Gill’s captaincy was also labelled as defensive by many, but Kaif thinks otherwise. In fact, he believes the 25-year-old led better than his English counterpart Ben Stokes.
"As a young captain, Gill did brilliantly by giving Bumrah 4-4 overs and rotating him well. He led better than Ben Stokes. Well done, thumbs up," Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
Kaif described Gill as a ‘helpless captain’, highlighting that he effectively had just one and a half bowlers at his disposal. He referred to Jasprit Bumrah as the lone warrior, and Ravindra Jadeja offered partial support, while the rest of the pace attack looked pedestrian.
“Helpless captain because he was playing with one and a half bowlers. One is Bumrah, and the remaining half is Jadeja. There was no support from Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, or Shardul. You can’t win the Test match with 1.5 bowlers. He did captaincy very well and looked good to me. He used his resources well,” Kaif added.
Ahead of the series, Shubman Gill was also under pressure to prove his worth as a batter in English conditions and he managed to silence his critics with a brilliant knock of 147 in the first innings.
“I will praise him a lot because it was a big Test for him in this series. It was important for him to score in England. Everyone said he doesn’t know how to play in England, [you] made him captain, but hasn’t scored runs. But he passed the Test with the bat, scored a century, excellent batting. Apart from captaincy, he showed he can deliver with the bat," Kaif remarked.
