It was the new skipper's first Test assignment.
Former England skipper Nasser Hussain lambasted captain Shubman Gill, who led the Indian cricket team for the first time in Test cricket. While batters did their job, smashing five hundreds in Leeds, it was the utilisation of resources to a greater extent and the on-field captaincy that Gill failed.
The visitors were ahead of the game for the first four days, but they failed to close out the escape routes and allowed the hosts to make a comeback. They didn’t concede a wicket to Jasprit Bumrah, arguably the best bowler in the world across formats, and put young pacers under pressure. Riding on Ben Duckett’s 149, the Ben Stokes-led side recorded their second-highest run chase in Test history. England successfully chased down a 371-run target with five wickets in hand at Headingley.
Senior players like Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, and Jasprit Bumrah were trying to assist the 25-year-old captain. However, the former England skipper felt that there was more than one captain on the field. He also observed the lack of direction during England’s chase.
“There were a lot of captains; it was a bit captaincy by committee, which can happen in your early days as a leader because you’re still senior players want to try and help you out as much as possible. I thought he followed the ball a lot. I thought he was reactive as opposed to proactive. I thought I saw someone just finding his way. The people he’s taken over from, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. I thought he didn’t quite have that on-field aura like them. You look down on those two previous names, and you immediately see who was in charge of India,” said Hussain on Sky Sports.
Pace spearhead Bumrah was the strongest contender to replace Rohit in leadership responsibilities. But he denied it to work on his workload management. Hence, the Delhi batter was appointed as the successor following the previous skipper’s retirement earlier this year.
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Hussain also pointed out that Gill didn’t use senior spinner Ravindra Jadeja on the final day when there was assistance for the spinner, especially against the left-hand batters. He believed that despite rough outside the off-stump, the left-arm spinner was not asked to exploit it fully, and that’s where the game slipped away.
“A word with Jadeja for bowling into the rough against left-hand batters. Commentators Ravi Shastri and Mark Butcher showed that the ball was pitching nowhere near the rough. Ravi was saying, a bit slow, a bit wide, bowl in the rough. I was surprised that not one of the senior players or captains went to Jadeja and said, Can we go a little bit wider. They lost the game for two things that he couldn’t control,” Hussain added.
The Englishman also admitted that some things were out of Gill’s control. First, the slowness of the pitch and poor executions from the pacers. He also acknowledged that his role is new and will evolve gradually, mentioning a couple of areas to work on.
The second Test will be played in Birmingham starting on July 2.
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