Our Bureau
Mumbai
With the sudden retirement of Test Captain Rohit Sharma, the discussions around India’s Test captaincy has been boiling hot. Shubhman Gill who seems to be the front runner in the Test captaincy race has had a polarising impact on both the analysts and the audience who think he is too young and inexperienced to lead the Indian team.
Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian captain has come out and given his share of mind regarding the current situation. He has said that according to him the Indian Premier League is the perfect training ground for new budding leaders. According to him the likes of Shubman GIll, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer can get ready through the IPL to then lead India in the future.
Mr. Gavaskar said, “When you see Gill, Iyer and Pant, three main pretenders to Indian captaincy you see an amalgamation of all three (Dhoni, Rohit, Virat). Gill probably is more competitive, when there is a decision, he is asking the umpire right away. He is probably a lot more involved.”
“Though Pant is behind the stumps, he is also very involved. Iyer too has been superb. All three have brought a lot of positivity in the way they have been captaining. As a captain, nothing gets you more experience than the pressure of a T20 game. It is the best training ground for captaincy” the little master explained.
He also emphasized on the fact that any young player will take years to develop and take the baton of super captains like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. He said, “It would take a couple of years (to groom future leaders) to get to the level of our super captains (MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli). All of them brought a different approach to captaincy.”
Gill is most likely to be handed the Test captaincy according to the reports and will be leading the side in the upcoming England tour starting on 20th June. It will be interesting to see how the young batter is going to take Indian cricket forward in this transitioning stage and whether he will be able to take the veterans along with the young guns going forward.
