CHENNAI: "Overwhelming" is how Shubman Gill described when he first got to know about the possibility of becoming India's Test captain. It is understandable considering about 12 months ago Gill was almost dropped from the Test team. He was, in fact, left out of the playing XI for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last year.
Indian cricket has hit the fast forward button since the 3-1 drubbing they received Down Under, conceding the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. R Ashwin retired mid-tour, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have called it a day in the longest format and Gill is the new India men's Test captain. On Thursday, he was at the BCCI headquarters, alongside head coach Gautam Gambhir addressing the media before leaving for England for the five-Test series.
As Gill walks out onto the field in Leeds with the India blazer on for the first Test on June 20, he will not just be a young captain leading a side, but also a team with a very inexperienced batting line-up. They have not yet nailed down the batting order as yet. It will be done after the intra-squad game and ten-day camp before the first game. Among the top five who are expected to play, only KL Rahul has played more than 50 Tests (58). Gill, himself, has played only 32 behind Rishabh Pant (43). In fact, the most experienced batter in the squad would be Ravindra Jadeja (80).
Gill, and Gambhir, remain positive with the 18-member team they are taking to England. "I think pressure is there in every tour to win as a team. Definitely, two experienced players who have played in our team for such a long time and won so many matches, it is difficult to fill their space, but as such, there is no different pressure. I think the batting combination and bowling combination with which we are going, the team has a very good mix of experience and talent," Gill said.
"It is a five-Test series in England. Everyone is excited. It is another opportunity to do something special for the country. For me, the most exciting thing is that we have got really quality players in the squad who are really willing to go out there and express themselves and do something special," Gambhir added.
Among the special players in the team, the biggest concern would be that of Jasprit Bumrah. It was made clear that he will not play all five games, but Gambhir said that the team management will decide when to rest Bumrah based on the conditions and how the series pans out. Both he and Gill also reassured that India have the bowling attack to take 20 wickets. "Obviously, when you have someone like Bumrah, depending on how many matches he would play, whenever he would come back and play the match for us, it would be a great sight for us. But I think we have a great mix of bowlers and a great set of bowlers who can get the job done," Gill said.
Gambhir did not rule out any changes being made to the squad based on how the series goes, including the case of Shreyas Iyer. Gill, while saying that he does not want to follow a specific style of captaincy as such, added that he would like to lead from the front, especially with the bat. "As you get more experience, I think your personal style is more visible to the people. What I like is to communicate with the players, make the players feel secure, talk to them and give them comfort in their weakness and strength. So these are the things that I think are very important to make a bond with the players. If you are the captain of any team, you are the leader of any team. Because if your players feel very secure, then only they can give you their 100 per cent," he said. "I have played under some amazing and terrific leaders. Rohit Bhai was, I think, with his communication, he was very clear about what he wanted from the players and that was his great quality which I would want to inherit from him. When I am batting out there, I just want to play as a batter and I want to make decisions as a batter. Having said that, I definitely want to lead the way by my performance with the batting."