India's newly appointed Test captain, Shubman Gill opened up for the first time on being given the opportunity to lead the country during the upcoming five-match Test series against England. He also explained his learnings as a leader so far and what he has learnt from past leaders like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
The five-Test match series between India and England is scheduled to start from June 20 and this will be the team's first outing in the new World Test Championship cycle for 2025-27.
Speaking in a video posted on the Indian cricket team's official Instagram, Gill said about getting the captaincy, "It is definitely a bit overwhelming. As a young kid, when anyone starts playing cricket, they want to play for India, and not just play for India, but play test cricket for India for a very long time. To be able to get this opportunity is a great honour. And like you said, it is a big responsibility."
Gill said that he looks forward to this "exciting opportunity" and an "exciting" tour of England.
"I believe in leading by example, not just by performance, but I think off the field by discipline and hard work," he added.
Gill said that as a captain, a person should know when to step in and when to give space to his players because everyone has a different life and grew up differently.
"Everyone has a different personality. So a good leader should always be able to know what makes his players to be able to have the best performance or the best outcome. That is always exciting to be able to have those conversations with the players, to be able to know them on a deeper level than just cricket, you know, because then you are really able to know what can get the best out of them," he added.
Gill has so far captained Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and he also captained India in the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe. He learnt the importance of separating batting and captaincy and making decisions as a batter while having a bat in his hand.
"If I start thinking about other things, it just puts more pressure on me, which is not required, you know, because when you are batting out there, you want to be able to take those risks. You want to be able to make decisions that you would make when you are playing, just as a batsman, because that gives you the freedom. That is one of the things that I learned, that whenever I am batting out there, I just want to be able to make decisions as a batsman, not really want to think that, oh, I am the captain," he added.
Gill, who featured under the captaincy of both Rohit and Virat, has revealed how the stalwarts inspired him and how both of them were contrasting, yet similar in their styles.
"Virat Bhai was always very aggressive. Always wanting to lead from the front with hunger and passion. Whereas Rohit Bhai was also aggressive, but you might not see that on their reaction or on their expressions, but he was also someone who was always very attacking on the field."
"Rohit Bhai was someone who was very calm and tactically always very present, and he is very communicative to the players, what he wants from the players. And so these are the qualities that I learned from him," he added.
The star batter also said that senior players like Rohit, Virat and Ashwin have given the team a "blueprint" of how to win games and series away from India and also recalled that his favourite Test series was a five-match series against England at home last year, where he made 452 runs in nine innings at an average of 56.50, with two centuries and two fifties.
"I think there is a different essence when you're playing a five test match series."
"It is long, it is mentally and physically very challenging. And I think that is the most exciting part about test cricket, because there are different areas and aspects that it challenges you at. It is not one-dimensional."
"There is a lot more things that go on in red ball cricket. And that is the most exciting thing that I find about red ball cricket. And hopefully, it is going to be a very exciting time for us. It is not going to be easy, but I think we are ready for any challenge," he concluded.
India squad for England tour: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc, wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.