Shubman Gill will take on his first challenge as India Test captain in England later this week. What should India – and England – expect from the new skipper?
On May 24, 2025, India welcomed its 37th men’s Test captain – Shubman Gill. At 25 years old, Gill will be the fifth-youngest player to lead the country in the format when he steps onto the field at Headingley on June 20.
The appointment has been met with doubt in some quarters, given his less-than-stellar record with the bat in the longest format, and his relative lack of captaincy experience in red-ball cricket. It’s hard to ignore the symbolism, and primarily broadcaster-driven marketing around Gill as the ‘Prince’ to Virat Kohli’s ‘King’ (his new sponsorship deal with MRF even has that nickname embossed on his bat face) – the cynic would say it benefits India's superstar culture most that, Gill is next on the proverbial throne.
The similarities with Kohli do not stop at that now-iconic MRF deal. Both had played the same number of Tests, 32, before being appointed full-time Test captain and at the time, Kohli was only a few months older than Gill is now.
As India embark on their first assignment under the new skipper, they do so without Kohli, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami. The team is well and truly in transition, and it is often in times like these that captains take on magnified (perhaps oversized) importance.
So, what can India – and England – expect from Shubman Gill?
What is Shubman Gill's previous experience as a captain?
The first sticking point, so to speak, might well be Gill’s lack of experience as a skipper. He has led Gujarat Titans for two IPL seasons now, but in first-class cricket, he’s captained a grand total of five matches.
His domestic captaincy stints at U16 and U19 level were in all likelihood a function of his being one of the best players in the side, as is the trend in age-group cricket. That extended to the India U19 side for the World Cup, where Gill was the deputy to Prithvi Shaw in 2018.
The first time he captained in senior cricket came in 2019 – barely 18 months after that tournament – as he led India Blue in the Duleep Trophy. It was here that came the first sign of Gill standing out from his peers.
A month shy of his 20th birthday, he was the youngest member of the XI in that match – and it’s not as if there were no other options. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ricky Bhui and Jalaj Saxena could all lay claim to the post.
The following month, it was the same story for India A, as the then-19-year-old led them to a seven-wicket victory over South Africa A which contained five members of the current WTC-winning squad in Aiden Markram, Senuran Muthusamy, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen and Lungi Ngidi. When Gill led his state side Punjab for the first time later that year, Prabhsimran Singh was the only player in the XI younger than him.
If his talent earned him the role in age-group cricket, why then were senior teams so keen to hand it to him as well? According to those who have worked with him, Gill displays maturity beyond his years.
'Felt like I was talking to a 30-year-old man'
“I recently did an interview with Shubman in Sri Lanka, I think last year in July. The evolution of him as a cricketer, as a human being, from 2018 to 2024 has been tremendous,” said Robin Uthappa, Gill’s former teammate at Kolkata Knight Riders, on YouTube, following the appointment. “I was speaking to a 24-year-old, 23-year-old? But it genuinely felt like I was talking to a 30-year-old man.
“The maturity with which he spoke, the clarity with which he spoke about what he wanted to do for Indian cricket even when he was just a player, was tremendous.”
That maturity has come through in Gill’s public interactions as well. Talking in 2023 about Gujarat Titans’ IPL victory the previous year, he provided a remarkably eloquent response for a 24-year-old who had won his maiden senior title: “There is immortality in those kinds of moments.
“Lifting the trophy is one thing. But what will you remember when you can’t move, when you’re 80 or 90 years old? More than lifting the trophy, it’s about the memories of the journey, of the whole year leading up to that moment.”
The clarity of thought Uthappa made mention of has also been evident. When asked in 2021, tongue-in-cheek, about whether he would choose batting advice from his father (his first coach) or then-India coach Rahul Dravid, Gill responded with: “To be honest, I wouldn’t listen to either of these two. I would just listen to myself and think, ‘What do I want to do? Do I want to do that or not?’
“Because at the end of the day when you get out, the person that will be regretting the most is yourself, like ‘Why did I listen to them, when I could have just got out doing my thing?’ At least I wouldn’t have had anyone to blame it on.”
If any of this sounds only tangentially relevant to cricket, well, that's because it is. Test captaincy, particularly in this day and age, and for a side like India, is almost ambassadorial in nature.
Rohit's calm vs Gill's intensity – and the shared character
The clarity of his public persona is perhaps what sets Gill apart most starkly from his predecessor, Rohit Sharma. Behind the scenes, Rohit would have been just as hard-working as anyone, but to the world he was bindaas (loosely: ‘cool’ or ‘carefree’) – sometimes even to his detriment.
While he does have this razor-sharp focus, something Gill seems to have taken from Rohit is the human aspect of captaincy. In 2020, he was brought into the KKR leadership group by coach Brendon McCullum, and his priorities were evident: “I think my responsibility would be to the voice of the people who have just come in. The youngsters who have just come in will be feeling shy and conservative. My responsibility would be to be their voice and to help them go about their things.”
Gill reiterated that stance during his first press conference as India captain: “What I like is to have that communication with players, make them feel secure, talk with them and make them comfortable with their strengths and weaknesses.
“So it’s all these things, forming a bond with each player, that, to me, are important if you are the leader of any team. If your players feel very secure then they can give their 100 per cent.”
His teammates have also vouched for the type of person he is. GT fast bowler Prasidh Krishna said in a pre-match press conference this season: “Shubman is a guy that I’ve known for quite some time now, and it’s really easy for any of us to go approach him and get anything from his mind.”
Fellow quick Gerald Coetzee added last month, “I think there's a good balance. I think he allows the bowler to express what he’s thinking. And if he feels something different, there will be a very short discussion and then a decision would be made, which I think is a really good quality for a captain.
“You want the bowler who is bowling the ball to set his field. But the captain also is the main leader. So, he might have a tactical idea. And that's how there's a short conversation and a decision is made. So, the clarity has been good. I think he's excellent when it comes to that department.”
When these aspects of his personality come through in public, it is not hard to imagine that there must have been more than a few glowing reviews from the dressing room that went to the selectors when the new captain was under consideration.
Rashid Khan: Gill doesn't forget his plans when he is under pressure
In a way, Gill has essentially been groomed for captaincy all his career. A batter with genuine all-format potential, leadership roles for India as skipper in the Zimbabwe T20I series last year and vice-captain to Rohit at the Champions Trophy were further indications.
He played only sparingly under Virat Kohli, the other massive personality now missing from the Test team. It’s no wonder then, that he tends to have gone the Rohit route on the field. In sharp contrast to Kohli, Gill isn’t quite the visible source of his team’s energy. In fact, it’s his calming nature that receives special mention.
“He comes with a plan, and he’s not someone who forgets the plan when he is under pressure," said GT spinner Rashid Khan in April. “He stays calm, and the way he manages the team on the ground and the bowlers… I think he has the qualities [to be a good leader].”
There will be a keen eye on Gill’s on-field tactics, with his ideas sure to be tested by an England side whose unconventional style can sometimes play on opposition skippers’ minds.
In his first year with GT, Gill’s management of bowlers appeared highly regimented, with very little deviation from pre-set plans even when things were not going their way. But there were more promising signs this year that he was beginning to grow into the role and make it his own, with a few more reactive moves with respect to field sets and bowler rotations.
That’s not to say these calls were always spot on – bowling Prasidh Krishna in the Powerplay during the Eliminator, and frequently leaving Sai Kishore’s quota of overs incomplete were two of the more iffy ones through the campaign. But at least they were being made.
Gill as batter and captain emphasises being purposeful
Gill’s overseas form with the bat has been a concern for a while now. But he has always been clear that the batting and captaincy are two very separate parts of his game: “If I am a batsman out there, I want to focus on batting. I want to make decisions as a batsman, not as a captain. If I start thinking about other things, it just puts more pressure on me, which is not required.”
He has also spoken about leading by example with his own approach, and early indications are that that is a solid idea. “He’s very organised, very diligent around his training and his preparation which will be a great example to other players,” said former GT coach Gary Kirsten.
“It’s not that I go for practice without any thought, just for doing repetition,” Gill told Uthappa in 2024. “I always have a target. Like in half an hour, 45 minutes, I’m targeting this. I’m playing the Powerplay, [working on] what my mindset is going to be when I’m playing, not just going there and smashing every ball.
“Then I’m playing the middle overs, I want to minimise dot balls, and then I’m playing the death overs. So I always have something to practice for. I don’t just do repetitions for nothing.”
“Let’s make each and every net session meaningful and let’s prepare like that,” he also told the Indian team ahead of their intra-squad practice match in Beckenham. “Let’s put ourselves under a little bit of pressure when we are going out there. Let’s make our practice match, and each and every net session meaningful – and let’s play every ball with purpose.”
A bit of Rohit, and a bit of Kohli – but Gill is his own captain
Gill’s specific emphasis on being purposeful is probably not inherited from his immediate seniors – Rohit was never big on getting into the nitty-gritty of training details, and while Kohli’s intensity was somewhat adjacent to Gill’s approach, his philosophy was more generally geared around being completely dedicated to the craft, whether in matches or training.
In conversation with Sky Sports, he did make note of one captaincy facet he wanted to pick up from Kohli: “His proactiveness in the field, or with ideas, his thinking, was something that I liked and picked up. If he thinks, 'This plan is not working,' he would have another plan ready, and then communicate to the bowler what he wants from them.”
There have also been solid indications of his ability to put the team first. In 2023, Gill admitted that he felt the pressure of batting down the order was worse compared to opening the innings.
Read more: Next No.4, the pace race: India's four big selection questions for the England Tests
But barely a couple of months later, when he was given the rare privilege of picking his batting position on a tour of the West Indies, he was able to put that aside, and told Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma that he would drop from his opening position to No.3, paving the way for Yashasvi Jaiswal’s entry to Test cricket.
Clear in his thoughts and approach, and ready for responsibility ever since he started playing senior cricket, Gill will not be overawed by the prospect of being the youngest Indian man to captain a Test in England. India have not won a Test series there in 18 years, and doubts abound over whether this squad can break that duck. A good personal series with the bat, even in a loss, will most likely be seen as relative success for Gill.
Expectations are low, and the rewards tantalisingly high. Blending previous approaches but treading his own path, India’s newest Test captain has the chance to do something special.
Image credit: X / @BCCI
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