The potential Test captain has scored 1,893 runs in 32 Test matches so far.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has revealed that he doesn’t want the prime pacer Jasprit Bumrah to take over the captaincy after Rohit Sharma’s Test retirement. He emphasised that Bumrah needs to manage his workload after his critical back injury, which ruled him out of India’s Champions Trophy 2025 campaign. He also missed a few initial matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Shastri continued to express his stance on Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant.
“For me, Jasprit would have been the obvious choice after Australia. But I don’t want Jasprit to be made captain and then you lose him as a bowler. I think he has to take his body one game at a time. He’s coming back now after a serious injury,” Shastri spoke.
The 1983 World Cup champion picked youngster Shubman Gill as his choice for the next Test skipper of India. The Punjab batter has impressed Shastri with his one-and-a-half-year IPL captaincy stint so far.
“You groom somebody and I would say Shubman has looked very good. Give him the opportunity. He’s 25 years of age, even give him time,” he stated on the ICC Review Show.
Notably, the Gujarat Titans (GT) finished eighth in Gill’s debut year as a skipper in IPL 2024. However, they made a strong turnaround in the ongoing IPL edition. Gill and Co. are currently placed at the top of the points table with eight victories in 11 matches. They are just a win away from qualifying for the IPL 2025 playoffs.
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Shastri also hit back at Gill’s critics for accusing him as a non-performer in away Test matches. He believes that the youngster is yet to get a long run in the red-ball format overseas.
“You people will talk he’s not scored runs overseas. You know, that topic always comes, not scored runs overseas. Sometimes I tell them, go and see your own record, how much have you done overseas? Overseas, overseas, let him play, let him get a run overseas, then he’ll score runs. He’s a class player. He has a decade of cricket ahead of him for the country. And I’m sure he’ll get cracking in one of the tours, he’ll make up for all those runs he’s not got on earlier,” the head coach voiced.
Notably, the opener made his debut in the Boxing Day Test against Australia in 2020. Since then, he has put up 1,893 runs in 32 matches so far. He also scored five hundreds and seven half-centuries in the longest format. Out of his tally, 1,177 runs have come in 17 home matches, including four centuries. Gill has just played 13 away matches in his Test career so far and scored 649 runs. His only overseas ton came against Bangladesh.
Besides Gill, Shastri also backed another youngster, Rishabh Pant, for the red-ball captaincy. The former Delhi Capitals skipper is currently leading the Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2025.
“There’s Rishabh as well. I think these two are the obvious ones I’m looking at because of their age and they have a decade ahead of them. So, let them learn. They’ve got experience as captains now, captaining their franchise and that makes a difference,” he added.
Following the IPL 2025, Gill will join the India A squad before their second first-class match against the England Lions. The two-match series will be headed by Abhimanyu Easwaran.
According to the reports, Gill is the frontrunner to take the leadership baton from Rohit. Fans will have to wait for official confirmation, and the upcoming five-match England tour starting June 20 will be a test of time for Gill to improve his stats.
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