Confident and assertive, Gill must now chart his own path

When England came to India at the start of 2024, India were looking at the start of a transition. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and R Ashwin, all similarly aged, were not going to be around forever. The series started with a defeat, but India rallied to win 4-1. A young man, a promising batter averaging 31 after 20 Tests and playing for his spot in the side, rose to the occasion and scored two centuries.

At the end of the series, coach Rahul Dravid told the selectors that he had seen leadership potential in Shubman Gill. Despite being at a sensitive point in his own career, Gill showed the willingness to be involved in planning, took interest in others' games, and displayed an even temperament. They also saw that he cared for Test cricket. He had yet to captain Gujarat Titans (GT) even. He had not been a captain at the Under-19 level. He had led Punjab in the Ranji Trophy in only one match.

In the year-and-a-half since, the selectors have noticed Gill grow as a leader. Working with the astute Ashish Nehra at GT, he has only become more confident and assertive.

There's never a perfect time for such a leadership change. In hindsight, the selectors should perhaps have appointed Gill as vice-captain during the Bangladesh Tests last year. He would have had an apprenticeship of two home series - New Zealand the other - before going to Australia where Rohit didn't start because of the birth of his child. Then again, who could have predicted a downfall in Rohit so sharp that he would drop himself during the Australia tour?

The one thing that could have been predicted was that Jasprit Bumrah as captain was a risk for Bumrah himself. Being captain requires him to play every Test, which ended up in a breakdown in Australia India don't want to risk again. Bumrah the bowler is too valuable to be doing that.

It could be argued that Gill should not have started his captaincy stint on such a tough tour, but the selectors have been clear about two things. The captain should come from the best XI. That eliminated Rohit. Nor did they want to look back for a stop-gap arrangement in KL Rahul and/or Kohli.

Given Bumrah's fitness issues, it came down to Gill and Rishabh Pant, two of India's best Test batters in the last five years. It came down to a judgement call. Pant is coming back from a big accident. He has exceeded expectations by playing ten Tests in a row. But the selectors want to be careful with him. His own game is not in a great place either.

That's an argument that can be made about Gill as well. He averages 35.05 after 32 Tests.

This is where you have to trust the selectors beyond just numbers. They see potential and a high ceiling, which Gill has shown in ODIs. Scratch a little beyond the raw numbers, and you see the difficult conditions Gill has batted in. In Tests involving him, the overall average of all top-six batters has been 32.92. So he has been among the better batters in his time.

This stage of Indian Test cricket is not too different to 2013, 2014 and 2015. Kohli took over the captaincy with pretty similar pedigree. He was 26, Gill is 25. He had played 29 Tests and averaged 39.46. He had had a horrible tour of England, which he needed to get over. He was an accomplished future ODI all-time great, Gill is an accomplished future ODI all-time great. Kohli had had two seasons as a full-time IPL captain at the time.

Kohli had the support of the hype machine in Ravi Shastri, who shielded him when shielding was needed and propped him up when propping up was needed. Kohli's best years as captain coincided with the Committee of Administrators running the BCCI, which reduced the need for politicking. He also had the blessings of MS Dhoni, who made the transition smooth. Gill will not have these luxuries.

Kohli, though, had an uncertain start. He didn't know if Dhoni, the full-time captain, would play or not. And then Dhoni retired mid-series in Australia. Gill has had a proper induction into the job. He was sounded out at some point during the IPL after which has had meetings with the selectors practically as the captain of the team. They see clarity of thought in what he wants for Indian cricket and how he intends to go about it.

Now it is up to Gill to chart his own path. He has to decide whether India continue playing the bob-each-way cricket they played in Australia or if they revert to chasing 20 wickets as cheaply as possible. He has to decide whether he continues to bat at No. 3 or whether he takes the No. 4 position that has belonged to the best batter of the side for the best part of more than the last three decades. More importantly, he needs to score big runs, which nobody can do for him.

Kohli scored four hundreds on that Australia tour in 2014-15, which established his authority as the captain. Gill can get help with captaincy, but he has to score his runs.

These are challenging times, but these are also exciting times. Both for Indian cricket and Gill.