TimesofIndia.com in London: Captaincy can often be a very lonely job, even in team sports. Especially when the results don’t go in your favour and unforeseen circumstances take over to complicate matters even further. There are times when you need that arm around your shoulder to give that assurance and the outside noise becomes so loud that it gets very difficult to shut it out. For Shubman Gill, England tour was his first bite of Test captaincy and it did give him different tastes throughout the series.From Leeds to London, the series had its fair share of highs and lows with no shortage of drama. There was the odd needle, ‘balls’ was the most trending keyword and injuries were a concern in both camps. For India, however, the concern was a bit more grave as Rishabh Pant missed the final fixture due to a fractured foot and Jasprit Bumrah, the leader of the fast bowling pack, was released mid-way into The Oval Test.
It left Gill, the new Test captain, all by himself. The spotlight firmly on him, he had to call the shots, continue contributions with the bat and ensure the group was aligned towards the bigger picture – draw in Manchester and then win at The Oval to level the series 2-2. Sounds like a straightforward plan but it came with its fair share of drama – tough team calls and then staying one step ahead of the ‘Bazballers’.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Gill, had come into the series with question marks over his away record, but a series haul of 754 runs, including four centuries, put that to bed.Captaincy was next and while Gill got better at it, his personality of being so approachable and likeable in the dressing room made it a breeze for the team to transition from the Rohit Sharma era. There was a lot of intrigue how Gill, a player obsessed with his own batting, will take up the additional leadership responsibility but for him, it worked wonders. Gill, the captain, was so occupied in getting the dressing room right and players on point that he hardly got the time to feel the extra heat of captaincy, and added pressure which comes along with it.
Shubman Gill finished the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy as the leading run-scorer. (ANI)
“If you think too much about others, your own pressure goes away, because you’re always thinking about someone else. Even in captaincy, or when I was batting, I felt in the series, because of thinking about others, I didn’t feel that much pressure on myself. I was always thinking, what can I do for the team? Or if someone is feeling low, how can I help? So I think all of these things, it helps me, to be able to take pressure from myself,” said Gill.He was sitting next to Mohammed Siraj during the press conference and didn’t shy away from lavishing praise on the bowling workhorse, and also mentioning the contributions of the two key players who missed the final game of the series.
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“When you have players like him (Mohammed Siraj), you don’t really feel like that (helpless). You know, they’re always going to come at opposition, they’re always going to make their life difficult. We didn’t have Rishabh. He’s been one of the key performers for us over the past couple of years, and even Boom bhai, I don’t need to say much about him, he’s also been one of the best fast bowlers in the world right now,” added Gill.During the series, there were enough instances of Gill’s batting class but questions persisted over the kind of leader Gill will grow and evolve into. Still early days but he has given a terrific account in his maiden assignment.
Shubman Gill acknowledges the crowd after India won the fifth Test match against England at The Oval. (PTI)
Not often do you see a series as hard fought as the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Not often you see teams grapple with injuries, availabilities and the high intensity. It will be safe to say no side released any steam for 25 days of going at each other but as Gill aptly summed it up, it was all worth it!“There are moments like these, where you feel the journey is worth it, the moment that we had in the morning… You should be able to navigate through the highs and lows of life and try to stay balanced throughout. That’s what at least I believe in, that I want to be able to stay balanced, whether we have won the match, lost the match, I’ve done well, or I’ve not done well. It’s difficult, but it’s a process. That’s the real journey, to be able to stay balanced. I’m still learning, but so far, so good,” said Gill.The young captain will win, lose, succeed, fail, get appreciated, face criticism and in this arduous journey as India’s Test captain, he will grow into the leader everyone expects him to be.
