It’s still early days for Shubman Gill as captain, but he has already toppled a few records.
His aggregate in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy is the second-highest for a captain, behind Don Bradman’s 810 against England in the 1936-37 Ashes. With 754 runs in five games, Gill surpassed former England captain Graham Gooch’s tally of 752, scored in 1990.
As expectations soar, Gooch — a legend of the game — believes that the Indian team is in safe hands.
“The captain has been outstanding. He looks like a real class act with the willow, and hopefully, he’ll get many, many more Test runs and victories for India in the future,” Gooch told Sportstar.
After Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli moved on from Test cricket, there were apprehensions about how Gill would handle the pressure of captaincy.
But in his maiden tour as captain, Gill brought the best out of his team, also leading the tally of runs.
Before the series, not many expected an ‘in-transition’ Indian team to put up a fight, but it went on to win the second Test in Birmingham and drew in the last outing in Manchester.
As it aims to level the series with a victory in the final Test at The Oval, Gooch believes Gill has not overlooked his primary duty — that of a batter — after being made the skipper.
“The captain is an outstanding player. I think his technique is superb. His concentration and his temperament throughout this series have been brilliant. It’s a great honour to captain a country — the highest any sportsman can have.
“But of course, you have to remember that your job is to score runs. He’s not put in the team just to be captain. He’s in the team to score runs,” Gooch said.
“That’s his number one job. And he’s delivered that, so that’s probably made his captaincy a bit easier…”
Making the format relevant again
The long series has had tempers flare, and Gooch believes that such contests keep the longest format of the game relevant amid the rise and rise of T20 franchise leagues.
“It has been an amazing series and really, really good for Test Cricket. We know that franchise cricket is all over the place in the world, and Test Cricket is under pressure.
“So, a series like this (is refreshing), with a lot of intrigue, a lot of quality cricket, a lot of big runs being scored, great bowling sessions, and just the tension, a little bit of needle in the game sometimes, which I don’t mind actually,” he said. “And there’s been a lot of passion on show from both teams. It’s been fantastic…”
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There was no dearth of drama throughout the series.
While Gill got into an animated conversation with Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett in the Lord’s Test, England captain Ben Stokes’ act of extending a handshake to Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar in Manchester — when they were inching closer to centuries — created a huge stir.
Gooch saw all of it as part of the game.
“There’s a lot of passion in international cricket when you’re playing against a country, when the series is very competitive and very tight. And sometimes, tempers flare a little bit and things are said that maybe you regret in the future,” Gooch said.
“But, it all happens in the spur of the moment. And I think it’s two teams going very hard at each other and trying to win the game. I never minded when there was a little bit of needle in the games I played with people. I don’t think it’s carried on afterwards,” he added.
On Bazball and Stokes
In the final Test, England felt the absence of Stokes, who led from the front throughout the series. With a shoulder injury, he could not feature in the series decider.
“Stokes, to me, has been a phenomenon this season. He has been a key player for England because he balances the side. If he doesn’t play, England have to go a batsman down. And if they go a batsman down, we’re not good enough to have four bowlers. We need five bowlers.
“To have a four-bowler bowling attack, in my opinion, you need two world-class bowlers, and England don’t have that at the moment,” Gooch said.
“When Stokes walks across the white line, he empties the tank. He doesn’t leave anything behind… Obviously, he’s put massive effort in over the last few Test matches, and he’s proved himself to be the world-class cricketer we knew, both with the bat, the leadership and the ball.”
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There have been debates over the long-term impact of Bazball, but Gooch backed it.
“It’s been amazing. When England started this sort of attacking cricket two years ago, they were a bit gung-ho — they made big mistakes and went pretty hard all the time. Now, I think they’ve tempered that a bit and they’re playing a lot smarter,” Gooch said.
“When England opened the batting at The Oval, they made the assessment that the ball was doing something. There’s a ball with your name on it. So, they decided that we’re going to go for it and that we’re going to take chances. We’re going to play a bit more like a T20 because there’s potentially lots of wicket-taking balls on this wicket. It’s not a bad theory,” the 72-year-old said.
“To do that, you need a bit of luck, obviously. And it works. They put 100 on for the first wicket or so. And then, things went back to a bit more normal with balls doing something. The bowlers were in the ascendancy…”
Saving the format
In his long and illustrious career, Gooch has donned multiple hats — one of the finest batters of his time, a successful captain, a national selector and a coach.
And he believes that Test cricket must not be restricted to just the ‘Big Three’ — India, England and Australia.
“The ICC (International Cricket Council) need to look at Test cricket and at how they can support the less financially well-off countries. I won’t say smaller countries, but the ones financially weaker, because you’ve got to preserve Test cricket.
“You can’t just play three teams. If other teams, like New Zealand, West Indies, and South Africa, play less and less Test cricket, no one will have anyone to play against,” he said.
