In the wake of India’s five-wicket loss to England in the first Test in Leeds on Tuesday, former England cricketer Nasser Hussain, offering a candid assessment of India’s new Test captain, Shubman Gill, touched upon Gill’s leadership qualities and drew comparisons with his predecessors. Nasir underlined that Gill was still finding his way and lacked the aura of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
"I thought I saw someone who was finding his way to be honest. You've got to be very careful, first Test match, the people he's taken over from, (Virat) Kohli and then Rohit Sharma, I thought he didn't quite have that on-field aura as the names I have mentioned there. You look down on those two previous names and you immediately saw who was in charge of India,” Hussain said on Sky Sports.
“I looked down from the press box, the commentary position, 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 like Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul 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," he said.
Hussain was also critical of Ravindra Jadeja, who is the most experienced player in the team, for failing to take advantage of the conditions.
“A word with Jadeja, maybe as a young captain, to go to such an experienced spinner, and go, you do know the rough is out there. Ravi Shastri and Mark Butcher are up there, going, show us where that ball is pitching, and it 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?’ But Ravi’s right, they lost the game for two things that he couldn’t control," Hussain said.
India’s first Test against England marked a significant moment in Gill’s career as he stepped onto the field as India’s new Test skipper, succeeding Rohit Sharma. Gill, meanwhile, made an emphatic statement with the bat, smashing 147 in the first innings.