Our Bureau
Chennai
Shubman Gill is the anointed captain of the Indian Test Squad and will be leading the side for the first time in the 5-match series against England. Gill is under pressure as there are many eyes on him after he was chosen to lead the side following the departure of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. India’s red ball legend, Ravichandran Ashwin, stated that the star batsman might be “too overwhelmed” as of now.
India’s former ace off-spinner stated that he believes that Gill might be getting weighed down by the heap expectations that are on his head. He believes that the young star will not only be worrying for his captaincy but also for his batting form as his first assignment is in England which can be very tough conditions for any batsman.
“I think Gill is already too overwhelmed by the attention and responsibility he has got. If I was in his place with such a high-pressure job, I would want to have a very good start as a batsman. As a batter, he will have his share of questions in his place, as England can be a very tough place to bat. But if he makes runs, runs will give confidence and that would in turn rub on to captaincy,” Ashwin said.
Ashwin also stated that according to him Rishabh Pant the newly appointed vice-captain of the Indian Test Squad will be the one showing more confidence in the series against the English-men.
He said, “I hope he gets off to a very good start to avoid any questions raised. But I think Rishabh goes into the series with a lot more certainty than Shubman. Test cricket is a lot about game awareness that grows and develops. In a recent Test against England in Ranchi, Shubman’s second-innings 50 spoke volumes of his attitude and transforming potential.”
India’s Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
