Star India player Shubman Gill’s progression as a player in the Test format made headlines. As the captain of the ‘A’ team, he is all set to play a key role and there’s a possibility that he can play in the senior men’s Test team at the No. 3 spot. His last Test series came against England where he battled some difficult moments before playing hard-fought knocks including a couple of hundreds and as many fifties. He has a Test average of 35 over 25 Test matches which is well short of his First Class average that touches 50 as well.
“Yes, I’ve not been up to my own expectations ([n Test cricket],” he said on the eve of the Duleep Trophy opener in Bengaluru. “But we have ten Tests coming up together. Hopefully, after these ten Tests end, I’d be up to my expectations or more,” he added. “I worked on my defence a little bit more especially against the spinners. Playing on turning tracks, you should be able to defend a lot more. Then you play scoring shots. With more T20 and playing on batting friendly tracks in the white ball, I feel it takes away a little from your defensive game over a period of time. So that was my focus during the England series.”
However, Team India are all set to play five Tests at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand before heading over to Australia to play five Tests as well, and Gill leads the batch of taking over from the older hands as well. He already played at the spot that Cheteshwar Pujara and made his own with stunning returns, especially Down Under. The responsibilities of captaincy in a tournament like the Duleep Trophy will help him evolve as well.
“Every match or every series you tend to learn more about yourself, whether you’re the captain or not. You tend to learn certain things about yourself, your game,” he said. “More so if you’re captain, you tend to learn about other players as well. Because it’s important for the captain to have a connect with the players. If you want someone to give their 100 percent, you should have a connect with the players. You should know their weaknesses and strengths. In terms of that there has been some change, there has been a lot more conversations especially if you’re the captain or vice-captain you have one-on-one conversations with the players.”
“There’s nothing easy or difficult. You’d have played a lot of age-group cricket with a lot of these player so there’s a lot of fun. And if you’re enjoying the captaincy role as well and to lead by performance as well. So if these things are in order, you’ll be enjoying everything,” Shubman Gill concluded.
