India got beat pretty badly by England in the first Test, losing by five wickets on Tuesday in Leeds. England made the 371-run chase look easy, with Ben Duckett killing it and scoring 149 runs. They’re now up 1-0 in the series.
It was a rough one for India. Even though five of their guys scored centuries, Shubman Gill and the team still lost. This Test match was Gill’s debut as captain, and it didn’t go well. Former England captain Nasser Hussain, along with Ravi Shastri, brought up some concerns about Gill’s captaincy.
Talking on Sky Sports with Shastri, Hussain said Gill didn’t have that same presence on the field that Virat Kohli had.
I just thought he was finding his way. You’ve got to watch yourself in the first Test, especially taking over from guys like Kohli and Rohit Sharma. I didn’t really see the same aura from him that those other guys had. When you look at those two, you knew right away who was running the show, Hussain said.
Looking from the press box, it felt like there were too many captains out there. It seemed like captaincy by committee, which can happen when you’re new and have senior players like Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul trying to help. He seemed to just react to what was happening instead of taking charge, he added.
Hussain also mentioned that Shastri kept going after Ravindra Jadeja for not bowling on the rough spot on Day 5, and Gill should’ve talked to him about it.
A young captain should’ve told someone as experienced as Jadeja, ‘Hey, you know the rough is there.’ Shastri and Mark Butcher were saying, ‘Show us where the ball’s pitching,’ but it wasn’t even close to the rough, said Hussain.
Shastri was saying Jadeja was bowling too slow and wide and needed to bowl in the rough. I was surprised that none of the senior players told Jadeja to go a bit wider. Shastri’s right, though. They lost the game because of things he couldn’t do anything about.