Shubman Gill, who made his Test captaincy debut with the first game of the five-match series against England at Headingley, scored a fantastic century to give a fitting reply to all his doubters. The 25-year-old finished the first day unbeaten on 127 alongside Rishabh Pant who ended up on 65. Thanks to them and Yashasvi Jaiswal's knock of 101, India wrapped up the first day on 359/3.
It was a highly successful day for the visitors, who dominated against the English bowling attack throughout all the three sessions. They will be looking to continue piling up runs on the second day while on the other hand, the hosts will be trying to forge a comeback by getting early wickets.
Manjrekar wanted Bumrah to be captain instead of Gill
Following the conclusion of the first day, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar came up with a big revelation. He admitted that he was against the idea of Gill getting appointed as India's Test captain and instead wanted Jasprit Bumrah to be given the role.
"I was against it. Let's be very honest, because I thought Bumrah would have been the better choice and the logical choice, without really thinking too much about the future, looking into the crystal ball. So I don't think it was the right decision," Manjrekar said on JioStar.
"But was Shubman Gill going to be a failure as captain? No. As captain, temperamentally, we knew that he wouldn't carry the anxiety of being the captain and affect his pattern. That is something we knew. The only question that we had was that he was still a kind of evolving material when it came to overseas cricket. There were some questions about whether the added pressure of captaincy could be too much for a guy who has not quite made a mark in overseas cricket," he added.
Manjrekar also believes that Gill severely improved on areas that had prevented him from scoring a ton on overseas conditions before. The 25-year-old came into the England series with a below-par average of 27 on overseas soil in Test cricket. Additionally, he had scored just one hundred in an away Test series which came back in 2022 against Bangladesh in Chattogram.
"Today, he got rid of three important technical areas that have, you know, prevented him from getting big overseas 100. The pitch was good, the bowling was friendly, but once he got rid of those technical issues, there's only one strength to look at when it comes to temperament and other things," Manjrekar further said.
With the century against England, Gill became the first Indian to score a century on captaincy debut against England on English soil. He also became only the fifth Indian Test batter after the likes of Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, and Virat Kohli to score a century in his debut innings as captain. This was the young batter's sixth Test century overall and his first outside the Asian continent.