The Indian team for the tour of England has just been announced and after many years, India are minus their three biggest names, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin. Three icons of the modern game with a small matter of 296 Test matches amongst them, who have all walked away into the sunset, as far as the red-ball game is concerned.
The departure of Rohit necessitated the naming of a new Test captain as well and the selectors have laid that responsibility on the young shoulders of Shubman Gill, making him the fourth youngest India Test captain ever. In the process, they overlooked Jasprit Bumrah, who has already captained India in England in the past and won a Test match at Perth In the last Australian series. He was apparently not considered because he is unlikely to play all five Test matches in this series, due to load management and potential injury concerns.
A lot of thought would have definitely gone into that decision and it is perhaps in the team바카라™s long term interest, given that India are now building a new side that will play together for at least the next half a dozen years or so, if not more.
But it is difficult to get away from the thought that the new captain, who is a very fine young player, is yet to fully secure his Test place, more so when playing overseas. His brilliant knock of 90 in the fabled victory at Gabba in 2021 has of course given every indication of his huge potential and mental strength.
But Test cricket is a tough inquisitor for a top-order batter, more so in English conditions and that begs the question as to why anyone would want to burden him at this stage as he goes about establishing his credentials? Particularly when there is already a proven performer in the team who has handled that responsibility successfully before, and could have easily held fort in the matches that he plays in the forthcoming series. Giving a bit more time in the process, to the younger man as he prepares himself to take on that mantle in the days ahead?
Gill is on the threshold of a potentially great international career that could serve India very well in the years to come. Why would anyone want to jeopardize that by making him captain now, when he could easily afford to wait for a while longer. And if the disintegration of Ollie Pope바카라™s batting form when handed the England captaincy before he was fully ready is anything to go by, it could result in potentially worrying outcomes.
Captaining a national side in a five-day Test match still remains the ultimate test of captaincy and leadership in cricket and is very different from leading an IPL team in a T20 game, which as Ricky Ponting once famously said, can be almost entirely planned and mapped in advance, over by over, by the coach and the support staff.
Test match captaincy, on the other hand, is often a cat and mouse game, a test of character and instinctive leadership and man-management skills amongst a host of other attributes, both tactical and technical. While Gill may have already demonstrated enough promise in those areas in his IPL captaincy, it would still be an awful lot of responsibility on his young shoulders.
At the same time, Bumrah may well be justified in feeling a little disappointed at not being given the reins of the national side for this tour,even if temporarily as a short-term measure. So both ways, the captaincy issue could turn out to be a double-edged sword, one that you wouldn바카라™t want hanging on this relatively inexperienced young side, as they embark on what could be a challenging tour.
There will be pressure on Karun Nair as well, as he looks to restart a Test career interrupted eight years ago. In a country where he got overlooked for a place in the playing XI, despite having a Test match triple hundred to his name against the same opposition.
His recent comeback in domestic cricket after languishing in the cricketing wilderness for a while has been nothing short of a fairy tale. Can he now take that form into the Test matches as well, if an opportunity comes? Will Shardul Thakur, another player on the comeback trail, be able to do that as well? Will Abhimanyu Easwaran finally get a look in?
And when Bumrah is rested, how will the pace attack fare on helpful English pitches, without the cutting-edge excellence of Bumrah and Mohammed Shami to lead the way? Will the absence of Axar Patel hurt on skiddy tracks?
Will this be the team of the future for India? The world holds its breath to find out.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author. The author is a veteran Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force, who has played Ranji Trophy for Services.
