A day before his first assignment as a captain begins, Shubman Gill looked interested in putting risk-taker on his resume. The simplest recipe for winning a Test game is to ensure you get 20 wickets. But for many teams, it remains a unicorn. Gill, while fighting the jitters before his big day, believes India need to do just that. It’s, however, easier said than done. Not only do you need your bowlers to be at the ace of their game, but some cuts also need to be levied on batting depth. If a captain believes that risk is worth taking, he might get this holy grail. Gill, for one, wants to do that.
In Australia recently, India leaned towards caution. They played three specialist pacers in the XI and relied on all-rounders to do a double role of deepening the batting lineup while also providing the main bowlers and captain with some reprieve. Now, with both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli already gone, weakening the batting lineup further by extending the tail might create problems for India they didn’t even know could exist. Gill, though, isn’t, in the slightest, perturbed by the foreboding of problems that haven’t yet transpired.
“Yes, definitely,” Gill said. “You can’t win a Test match without taking 20 wickets, no matter how many runs you have scored. So, that has been one of our key discussion points, you know, how we’re gonna take 20 wickets. And there might be a case, you know, where we could only be going with some pure batters and you could see a bowling allrounder and three to four premier fast bowlers or proper bowlers.”
Gill knows many questions will come their way with this risky but simple approach. But he also knows that a strong start could ease all that noise. And simple is also the way he’s decided to keep things with his new captaincy role.
“Honestly, when I want to go out there and bat, I just want to play as a batsman, not really want to think that I’m the captain of the team because I think that sometimes puts too much pressure on you,” he said. “Whenever I’m going out there, I want to play as a batsman and want to dominate the opposition and be the best batsman in the series, and that’s what I’m trying to look at.”
He will bat at the No. 4 position, with Kohli now gone. If you are a batter, you’d know how tricky and unforgiving that slot is under almost every circumstance. If you aren’t one, consider yourself lucky. Gill doesn’t only have his new captaincy role to worry about – which he is allegedly not worrying about – but also the burden of batting at one of the more crucial spots in the longest format. Add to that, he has Virat Kohli’s shoes to fill. But he plays it cool by saying nothing’s any different for him.
“I mean, whenever I’m playing, I always think the opposition is trying to challenge me,” he said. “I mean all the players, you know, that they think are key. So I don’t think it’s going to be any different.”
India have been without a series win in England since 2007. And what would be a better way to announce the beginning of a new era than doing what the big guys before him couldn’t do? And that is really why a series win here means more to the new Indian captain, more than any IPL title.
“Definitely the Test series, in my opinion,” Gill said. “You don’t get many opportunities as a captain to be able to come to England, maybe two; if you are the best of your generation, maybe three. And IPL comes every year, and you get to have a crack at it every year. So in my opinion, winning a Test series in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa is bigger.”
Gill has the role now. The backing of the selectors. And, by the sound of it, a firm grip on the direction he wants to take this team. The rest, as always, will come down to what happens once the first ball is bowled.
