Shubman Gill trumpets winning a test series over IPL as he begins India captaincy
It seems like Shubman Gill's love of test cricket is as strong as it was for the great Virat Kohli, one of his predecessors as India's red-ball captain.
Heading into his first assignment as test captain, Gill was asked Thursday if he'd prefer to win the upcoming five-match series in England or the title in the Indian Premier League.
'Definitely the test series, in my opinion,' Gill said, without hesitation. "You don't get many opportunities as a captain to come to England, maybe two. If you are the best of your generation, maybe three.
'IPL comes every year and you get to have a crack at it every year. In my opinion, winning a test series in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa is bigger.'
Those words will be music to the ears of Kohli, a former India captain who retired from test cricket last month after a 14-year red-ball career in which he scored 9,230 runs, including 30 centuries, and led his country in 68 matches.
Kohli sees test cricket as the sport's ultimate format and remained a huge advocate amid the startling rise of the T20 game, helping to change his country's attitude toward the longer format.
Speaking recently after winning his maiden IPL title while playing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Kohli said: 'This moment is right up there with the best moments I've had in my career, but it still marks five levels under test cricket. That's how much I value test cricket. That's how much I love test cricket. I would just urge youngsters coming through to treat that format with respect.
'If you perform in test cricket, you walk around anywhere in the world, people look you in the eye, shake your hand and say well done, you played the game really well. If you want to earn respect in world cricket all over, take up test cricket, give your heart and soul to it and earn the respect from legends.'
The next generation of players, now led by Gill, appears to have the same mindset in a new era without Kohli and Rohit Sharma, another great who recently retired from test cricket.
Gill, who will take Kohli's spot at No. 4 in the batting order, was asked at a news conference Thursday — on the eve of the first test against England at Headingley — about his team's likely approach over the next few weeks against an opponent famed for its enterprising 'Bazball' strategy.
He wasn't so forthcoming.
'You're going to have to wait until August to see what kind of style it's going to be,' Gill said with a smile.
Adding a bit on his 'vision,' Gill said he wants to help 'create an environment in the team where everyone feels secure.'
India last won a test series in England in 2007.
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I said, 'What's going to be funny about this is what they are praising us for at the moment, they will ask us to defend at some point. They're going to ask us to defend this term that we never came up with in the first place'. "To us, it's just about creating an environment players can thrive in, not Bazball. I just believe you've got more of a chance to succeed if you think positively, if you see the opportunity, if you look to score runs and then survive after that. In the simplest terms, the brain works quicker, you're more alert, and you can make better decisions if you think positively. And that's in defence and attack. "At times in English cricket, we feel the danger and the trouble. There have been times when we haven't even bought a raffle ticket — we don't even have a go. We die wondering sometimes. I wanted a team, and a captain, who would risk failure to succeed." 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Take the Lord's Test against Australia in 2023, when (Australia spin bowler) Nathan Lyon limped off (on day two) and it felt that was the time for England to go and grab the game, but they all got out trying to pull the short ball. It was an opportunity where they had to play the situation rather than keep on doing it their way. Advertisement "So they've polarised opinion, but, ultimately, they have provided great entertainment and they've got more people watching Test cricket." Key insists the suggestion that England are somehow evangelical in their approach may have been exaggerated. "We're getting a bit too carried away with ourselves if we think we're the people who are going to save Test cricket," he says. "We just want it to be fun, enjoyable and have a team people want to come and see. 'Sport is escapism. People want to come and see unbelievably talented players doing things they can't do themselves. 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For instance, Jacob Bethell was chosen when he hadn't scored a hundred, and there might have been players like Joe Clarke at Notts (Nottinghamshire) and others looking at that thinking, 'What do I need to do to play for England?'. "Shoaib Bashir was picked after Stokes saw him bowl six great deliveries on a social-media clip. "But a lot of people who have scored lots of runs and taken lots of wickets at county level haven't been successful with England, and what this regime is saying is, 'We will pick players who we think can play the game at the highest level the way we want it played'." The one major setback of the Bazball era was England's 4-1 series defeat in India early in 2024, which makes the following five matches against the same opponents and then the Ashes from November to January even more important. Bazball has to be seen to work against the best. "We all know — and they know — they're going to be judged on the next six months," says Farbrace. 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