Former India batter Mohammad Kaif said that Shubman Gill still has a lot to learn and is not yet the finished product as a captain as well. His comments came after the second Test of the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, which ended in a draw on Thursday, August 27, in Colombo. Heading into Day 5, India had the upperhand as Sri Lanka had lost six wickets in their follow-on innings and they were leading by just 16 runs. However, Sri Lanka put up a brilliant fight and eventually declared at 429/9 in their second innings, taking their lead to 216 runs before they shook hands for a draw as well.
Speaking about this on his YouTube channel (Mohammad Kaif), he said: “There was a lot happening on this pitch. People are saying, ‘There was not so much turn on the pitch.’ Of course, there was a lot of turn. Is four degrees of turn really that little? You might say it should have been seven degrees or six degrees, but the pitch was very favourable for bowling. The ball was turning. I just feel that, overall, we somehow failed to capitalise on those key moments. As a captain, Shubman Gill is still learning. When we talk about him becoming a mature captain, I feel he is still not the finished product.”
“What I saw was that the bowlers were being used in one-over spells. I have rarely seen a captain use a bowler like that, sometimes for one over, sometimes two, sometimes three. And when you reach the fourth or fifth day of a Test match, you don’t have to do anything extraordinary. You have good bowlers in your team. On the fifth day, what do you have to do? You just have to bowl. Keep bowling, keep bowling, keep bowling,” he added.
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“So, in my opinion, one of the key issues was that the bowlers were not being given the patience and sustained spells they needed. When you hand the ball to a bowler and allow him to bowl a long spell, he gets a chance to settle into a rhythm. That opportunity to settle was not given to them. That is the first thing,” he shared.
However, Mohammad Kaif added that Shubman Gill is still learning and understanding himself as a captain. He stated that making errors is part of the learning process and described the second Test as an example as well.
“One thing I feel about Shubman Gill is that he still has a lot to learn. He has only recently become a Test captain, but he is not yet a mature or fully developed captain. He is not the finished product. He is still learning along the way and understanding himself and his captaincy. In the process, you will make mistakes and you will learn from them,” he added.
“I would call this Test match a case of mistakes, particularly because of the constant bowling changes. We discussed this during the commentary as well. I could not understand the frequent bowling changes, and I don’t think anyone could. At times, Mohammed Siraj would bowl one over with the new ball, then take a break, and return after five or six overs. He would then bowl another over,” he concluded.
