INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
Gill’s form with the bat has allowed him take a more assertive approach as captain ©Getty
At Lord’s, Shubman Gill told Zak Crawley to “grow some ba**s.” The words were sharp, but more telling was the fact that they came from him.
Until that moment, no one quite knew what kind of Test captain Gill would be, or if he even wanted to leave any early stamp on the role just yet. His first two matches had been steady, if a little unremarkable. At times, he seemed content to play the part without entirely owning it. Of course, he was still coming to the beats of the job, one he admitted has been leaving him more mentally tired at the end of fielding days. But something shifted on that third evening at Lord’s. The volume went up. The edge came through. Gill wasn’t just reacting to the contest anymore, he was actively shaping it.
In some ways, it’s the batting that has allowed this version of Gill to emerge. Nearly 600 runs before getting to the third Test will have given him the comfort of certainty, the knowledge that he doesn’t need to prove his worth every innings. That form has perhaps freed his instincts, allowed him to think less about himself and more about what’s happening around him. And in that space, a more assertive, more vocal captain is beginning to form.
The signs are clearest in how he’s grown into his tactical decisions. In the first Test, Gill had to find a way to ration his resources. The 101 first-innings overs were split 25, 27, 20, 23 and 6. Those six overs were bowled by the fourth seamer, Shardul Thakur, who Gill struggled to get into the contest and brought on only in the 40th over, by which point the Dukes ball had gone soft and the moment had passed.
The sequencing was better at Lord’s. Nitish Reddy was into the attack in the 14th. In his first over, he also gave two wickets from the Nursery End. The difference was more than just timing, it was about trust, about giving a less obvious option room to settle in and influence the game.
His read of the bowlers has improved too. In Birmingham, it was Mohammed Siraj who had to ask for a change of ends. At Lord’s, Gill was already ahead of that curve. Bumrah started from the Pavilion End, as most lead bowlers do, but was swapped to the Nursery End after just four overs with Gill happy to test how his talisman’s unique action played against the slope. Inside two sessions on a slow-moving opening day, every bowler had operated from both ends. A small thing, but one that showed he was happy to chase solutions even during an attritional phase of play.
Field settings, too, have slowly become more proactive. In Leeds especially, there was a slightly reactive feel, moving fielders after the ball had exposed the gaps. At Edgbaston, Gill began to change that, and was heard even asserting “Jaddu bhai” to get long-on up and invite the big shot. At Lord’s, he went a step further. Against Crawley on the morning after the flashpoint, he instructed the ‘keeper go up to the stump and had two strategically placed deep gullies for a drive. It was the second of those that caught a hard-handed shot off Nitish Reddy.
Later in the morning session, when Harry Brook led a brisk counter with a pair of scooped fours off Akash Deep, Gill got his fine leg stationed very straight, and showed Brook empty real estate at square leg, forcing him into a flatter, riskier sweep. He missed that very shot in the next over and was bowled. It’s the field tweaks that worked for the Ben Stokes dismissal too, forcing a slog sweep, rather than the conventional one which had worked and having him bowled.
Gill’s field placements, initially reactive, became noticeably more proactive by the second Test at Edgbaston ©Getty
That’s not to suggest all his calls have landed. At Edgbaston, England were 84 for 5 when Gill decided to attack Jamie Smith again with the short-ball ploy. He had runs in the bank to go searching for a wicket, but it was a move that didn’t work and saw England find a 303-run sixth-wicket stand. Prasidh Krishna was the unfortunate fall guy, his returns taking a beating. But even through that stand, there were glimpses of Gill thinking long. Rather than over-bowling Siraj and Akash Deep, he held them back for second new ball bursts. On fresher legs, they broke the innings open.
There are still areas to his captaincy that remain to be unpacked. For example, with spin he has his methods, even if they can be contested. He’s spoken about the need to field attacks that take 20 wickets, but has also conveyed that he likes control over flair from his second spinner. Washington has got the nod over Kuldeep Yadav because Gill and Gautam Gambhir value his overqualified status as a No. 8 batter.
Of course, an important part of India captaincy is dealing with the media. How captains speak publicly says something about how they carry the job. MS Dhoni was mostly indifferent and kept media at arm’s length. Virat Kohli often turned it into a statement of identity: defiant, charged, creating an ‘us versus them’ vibe. Rohit Sharma, in his short stint as Test captain, brought a drier, more grounded tone. Gill, so far, has been measured. Not stiff, not detached. Happy to spell out mistakes his team has made without throwing anyone under the bus.
This was, of course, until he heard about instigation charges against his team for that Lord’s flashpoint, at which point he walked out at Old Trafford and referenced England’s time-wasting tactics as being contrary to the spirit of cricket.
What he did at Lord’s – the confrontation – carried a consequence. It woke up the opposition. England, until then drifting, found a little extra fight. His press conference in Manchester could just as easily have the same effect. It’s all part of his evolution. But the challenge now is to ensure that spark works for his own team as well, that it becomes fuel, not distraction, to his own batting.
Three Tests in, Gill is still a captain at the start of something. He’s managing a transitioning team, overseeing a side that still bears the aftershocks of big exits. And his missteps are real. But so is the learning curve. And for the first time, we’re beginning to see a version of Gill leading beyond just with the bat.
He’s nowhere close to being a finished article, and Lord’s certainly didn’t crown him. But it felt like the moment he truly took charge.
© Cricbuzz
