IPL2025: According to Kapoor, Gill utilized his mind far more than other players at the U16 level

IPL2025: According to Kapoor, Gill utilized his mind far more than other players at the U16 level Theindiaprint | 19/05/2025 14:27:24

Delhi The topic of discussion has been who would be the next Test captain ever since Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the game earlier this month. Even though KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah’s names come to mind right away, Shubman Gill is seen to be the front-runner to be India’s next Test captain.

Gill’s experience in leadership responsibilities has been enormous over the last 12 months; when Hardik Pandya returned to the Mumbai Indians, he was appointed captain of the Gujarat Titans. Gill’s leadership abilities were noticed by the Indian squad, who elevated him to the position of ODI vice-captain and made him captain of the T20I trip to Zimbabwe last year, despite GT’s failure to advance to the knockout stages.

Assistant coach Aashish Kapoor said that based on his observations of Gill at the U16 level, the right-handed batter always used his brain more than his peers after he hammered 93 not out and shared an unbroken 205-run stand with B Sai Sudharsan to help GT thrash Delhi Capitals by ten wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

“I believe Shubman is an excellent thinker of his own batting if you consider him to be both a batter and a cricket player. I saw him when he was less than sixteen. In fact, I worked with him on two camps in NCA. He used to utilize brains a lot more than many other males his age, based on my observations of the under-16 age range.

That is one of the requirements for becoming a captain. where ten other people and yourself may benefit from your intellectual power. How do you plan on winning games? We saw this as well as the time Hardik departed, when we had a chance.

We had the option of selecting a different senior to serve as our captain. However, we gambled on him,” Kapoor said at the news conference after the game.

Gill’s first significant experience in a leadership position was during the 2024 Indian Premier League, which got somewhat intimidating with Pandya’s departure and Mohammed Shami’s absence due to an achilles tendon injury. It didn’t make for a good start for Gill, the GT leader, especially when combined with his own poor performance.

However, with the auction voids filled in IPL 2025, Gill has developed into a calm and confident captain. Gill was proactive in altering his fields throughout the Sunday match, according to the bowling plans, and, even though he made the controversial choice to give the 16th over to R Sai Kishore, which resulted in 15 runs, he gave the impression that he was in charge of the game and himself.

Shami was injured and out of form during the last year before Hardik departed. Even after taking everything into consideration, we could still tell that he was making a lot of effort as a captain. This year’s results are visible. Although the leadership has remained the same, he is playing better this year, which benefits both the team and himself.

“There should be less injuries on your squad and your players should be your best players, which is a crucial factor in the IPL. Due of its lengthy structure, this is one thing. Your whole squad may take a backseat if one or two key players are injured.

Kapoor, the former India player who subsequently led the junior men’s selection committee, said, “So that way we are lucky this year.”

In the Indian cricket community, there is a belief that Gill may assume the Test leadership whenever Bumrah is unable to play because of workload management. This belief is based on the fact that Bumrah is still young and hasn’t made a significant impact in foreign Test matches.

Another opinion is that India should invest in Gill as a long-term Test captain and keep him as skipper from the beginning. Additionally, Kapoor emphasized that Gill has just recently begun his cricket career as a leader and that it is impossible to anticipate how well he would do as a red-ball captain at this time based on white-ball results.

We’ll have to find out. An astrologer is not what I am. T20 cricket is being played here. (MS) Dhoni was not captain anywhere when he was named captain for the World Cup for the first time. Therefore, no one anticipated that he would become one of the greatest captains in the world ten or twelve years from now.

What would you have thought of your leadership if you had asked anybody at the time, including Dhoni? No response would be forthcoming. Therefore, before you can form an opinion on someone, you must observe them for a considerable amount of time. It is quite tough to tell since he hasn’t even begun.