Team India lost the first Test of the five-match Test series against England. While they played without their key players – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin, as they have announced retirements, Shubman Gill’s captaincy received comparisons with Virat Kohli’s as well.

“Most people felt Shubman Gill went too defensive. But I think he was trying to trap England by cutting off boundaries, hoping the wickets would come eventually,” said Sanjay Manjrekar on JioHotstar after the conclusion of the match.

Sanjay Manjrekar, however, agreed that Virat Kohli would’ve led the side differently. He would’ve told his players to try and get England out by Tea itself, after they were given a target of 371 runs in the Leeds Test as well.

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“I hate to bring Virat Kohli as a comparison, as Shubman Gill is a young captain, but he would not have put such a defensive field. That’s different from someone like Virat Kohli, who might say: We have enough runs, I’ll get you all out before Tea. Whether he would have gotten wickets with an attacking field is not guaranteed, but he would have been at it,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.

“Gill doesn’t have the same seam attack as England-though they don’t have Bumrah but English team has more all-round options. Even with Jadeja, I felt India should’ve started with a standard field rather than pre-empting reverse sweeps. You want to start with attacking intent-even if only for a few overs-before going defensive. That said, I don’t want to be overly critical of Shubman. He’s a new captain, and we should be understanding of that,” Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.