Skipper Shubman Gill led from the front and produced knocks of 269 and 161 to script India’s historic 336-run victory over England in the second Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
With his stunning exploits, Gill broke a plethora of records, becoming the first Asian captain to score a double ton in a Test match in England. He also set a new record for highest score by an Indian batter in a Test innings in England, going past the 221 scored by Sunil Gavaskar in 1979.
Moreover, the 25-year-old broke record for most runs in debut series as India captain, surpassing Kohli who had amassed 449 runs against Australia in 2014/15 when he took over the charge from MS Dhoni.
Gill has already aggregated 585 runs in just two matches of the ongoing series. He stands just 18 runs short of becoming the most prolific Indian batter on the tour of England, with Rahul Dravid leading the chart, having scored 602 runs in the 2002 series.
Impressed with his performances, Former England cricketer-turned-commentator Nasser Hussain heaped rich praise on Shubman Gill, emphasizing his tactical acumen and composed demeanour as Test captain.
Hussain also termed Gill as a different character than Kohli, who used to wear heart on his sleeve as the Indian captain.
“He’s always going to be calm and composed. You just listen to that interview. He has got a very low heartbeat. So, he is not going to be a Kohli type character. He has got a low heartbeat but that can help. Look at all the crowds here today. Look at all of India watching on. You may need someone just to calm the team. He did some subtle things, which we would not do. You know, Akash Deep bowled beautifully from this end. This morning we thought he’s going to start from this end (Pavillion end). He starts him up at the other end. And it worked. So, there were tactical things in the game that he did in the game as well that really worked. The most important, get runs. That’s his number one job. And he’s got a shedload of runs,” Hussain said while speaking on Sky Sports.
India lost the series opener at Headingley by five wickets despite setting a massive 371-run target for England. Hussain was of the opinion that Gill was more visible in his tactics and managing the team on the field at Edgbaston.
“I do think that was important. I do think he was more visible. It’s very easy when you lose, you sort of blame the captain and say, ‘Oh he went missing’. And when you win, you go, ‘Oh, he’s a great captain.’ But I do think just watching from up above (from the commentary box),which we often do, the Headingley game, there was a lot of input from a lot of people and it was like who’s in charge. You look down today and he was in charge and the camera often went on him and he was moving fielders around. He still needs help from Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul or whatever, but he looked in charge,” Hussain stated.
Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri also highlighted Shubman Gill’s proactive bowling changes on the last day of the Birmingham Test.
“One word comes to mind. He was assertive in this game. Yes, he took advice from other people but it was his decision. And a smart one today in hindsight. A lot of people thought, we thought you know Akash Deep should have started from the pavilion end. He opted for him to bowl from the other end. Now he had batted that surface more than anybody else. So he would have known which are the areas that can give problems and who is most likely bowler to hit those patches early on to put England back. He knew if India take a couple of wickets in the first half an hour, one hour, the game is cracked open. England are on the back foot. They can’t win. You can have men in catching positions and his bowling changes today were proactive and he was spot on,” Shastri told Sky Sports.
