Mark Ramprakash, a former England player, has praised Shubman Gill for his endurance, skill and hunger. He said the young Indian batter and captain can take over from the ‘Fab Four’ of world cricket as they wind down.
Gill scored 269 and 161 in the Birmingham Test, after scoring 147 and 8 in the series opener at Leeds, totalling 585 runs in two Tests of the five-match series.
We must acknowledge his endurance, skill and hunger – not just for runs but to set a standard as captain of a young team, Ramprakash wrote in The Guardian.
We are at the end of an era that has been led by the ‘Fab Four’ – Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson – and the search has been on for players who can step up.
Gill has shown he can do it in a very orthodox way. He plays all formats and is very adaptable with a base of classic technique.
Ramprakash, who played 52 Tests between 1991 and 2002, said captaincy has helped Gill’s performance, sharpened his focus.
Captaincy can harm a player’s form but it seems to have focused him; his three highest Test scores have come in the last three weeks.
Gill, 25, is the second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to score a double hundred and a hundred in the same Test.
He is also the first Indian and Asian captain to score a double hundred in a Test in England. The visitors won by 336 runs and the series is now 1-1. India had lost the first Test at Leeds by five wickets.
After two games we have seen something special from Shubman Gill. In the second Test at Edgbaston he produced a rare performance that defined and dominated the game, Ramprakash wrote.
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He not only scored runs but forced his opponents to toil in the field until they were tired and out of ideas. That tiredness affects batters’ mental clarity and their decision making when to play, when to leave, where to move and where to footwork.
“Reducing England to 25 for three at the end of the second day decided the game. Just as India bowled well with the new ball, it was Gill’s relentlessness that created the environment for it to happen.”
