'Won't be easy for him...': Ricky Ponting gives blunt verdict on Shubman Gill ahead of Test captaincy debut against England

Newly-appointed India Test captain Shubman Gill will be leading the team in the five-match series against England which is set to commence from June 20. The series will be highly important for both the sides as it will also kick-off the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.

Ponting believes Gill has to work on his Test batting

Ahead of the series, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has fired a major warning to the new 25-year-old India skipper, stating that he has work to do on his Test batting. He further stated that improving his batting in the format will be a diffficult task to do as the captain.

"His white ball form has been incredibly good. He's got a little bit of work to do, on his Test match batting. And that's never easy when you're a new captain, to have to worry about your batting to the degree that he's going to have to, it won't be easy for him," Ponting told PTI.

However, Ponting also expressed confidence on Gill and stated that India have made the right choice in making him the captain. He further said that Gill will lead the Indian team for quite some time.

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"I actually named him as captain for the Sydney Test match last summer when Rohit didn't play that game and there was a bit of an injury cloud over Bumrah, or as that game went on, Bumrah actually broke down in that game. And look, I don't know Shubman that well. I've spoken to him six, eight, 10 times, maybe the last couple of years around different things and around batting and around leadership. He's done a great job with GT (Gujarat Titans), no doubt about that," Ponting stated.

"But he just seemed the sort of guy that the extra responsibility wouldn't faze too much. It seems like he's got a really level head on his shoulders. He's someone that's going to be around in Indian cricket for another 10 years," he added.

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Gill has so far featured in a total of 32 Tests for the national team, scoring 1893 runs including seven fifties and five centuries. His highest individual score in the format is 128 and he also has a decent average of 35.05. The onus will be on him to not only lead the side well, but also perform well with the bat throughout the important tour against England.

Gill recently captained the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025 and lead them to the playoffs. The team performed well under his leadership and finished third on the IPL points table, but were knocked out of the tournament in the eliminator by Mumbai Indians.