Former India player Mohammad Kaif commented on Shubman Gill’s captaincy amid the ODI series against the West Indies. India have already sealed the series 2-0 as well. However, Kaif shared some glaring issues that Gill must give attention to.
Kaif said that Shubman Gill, as captain, is still in a learning phase and that he needs more experienced bowlers in the team.
“It’s hurting me that he’s not able to see these things. I don’t know who is telling him things behind. First he has to accept that he is still learning captaincy and that is why he needs experienced bowlers. This is why the captaincy is getting exposed. You cannot become a good captain by giving excuse of flat pitch. Flat pitches will always be there. It has been there since ages. I feel Shubman Gill will have to be smart here and bring in a mix of experienced and new bowlers. If Nabi is getting hit, how will Gurnoor help him? A senior bowler can help the young bowlers. You cannot play all young bowlers. You are destroying careers of young bowlers as well,” he explained in a video on his YouTube channel.
“Shubman Gill is a young captain. If you see any experienced captain or older players, by the time they got ODI captaincy, they had played a lot of games already. The transition has happened very early for Gill. The others had a lot of support of senior players as well. Gill does not have that support really. He has to think about this. He is a young captain and a work in progress himself,” he again said.
READ HERE: “He is not here for the milestones” – Hanuma Vihari on Virat Kohli
“He is heading towards understanding how to be a good captain. In this, if you get inexperienced bowling like this, his captaincy will not run for long. Even if it is a flat track, senior bowlers will find ways to deliver. A young team and a young captain is a bad combination. That was exposed and it was seen that he had no idea when so many runs were getting scored,” he further added.
While Team India continues to dominate with the bat, their bowling unit is yet to step up. There is a lack of quality fast bowlers suitable for white-ball cricket especially. Kaif also stated that Shubman Gill, as captain, must back young
pacers if they are being picked and not drop them after a few poor shows as well.
“This weakness will never convert into strength if you give guys just few games or few overs. A young bowler needs time. If you have picked them, give them the stability. Don’t drop immediately if they don’t do well. You can never build a team like this. Skill wise, we have gone down in bowling. Give the ball to guys like Bhuvneshwar and they will get the ball to swing no matter what the pitch is. My advice to Shubman Gill is to back skillful bowlers,” he said.
“I will not judge anyone from one match. It was his first game and also easy batting conditions. But yes, he has taken wickets in red-ball and if you play him in white-ball, the difference will be there. There is one trend going on right now that we are getting lot of players where we don’t have any problems. Like there are a lot of batters. But the problem is with the bowling and there are no options there like in the batting. We have to focus on this,” he concluded.
