London: Someone who never dreamt of leading the national cricket team, India’s new Test skipper Shubman Gill has set himself the goal of creating a team culture where every player is “secure and happy.”
A transitional India will search for their maiden Test series victory in England since 2007, and the first match is scheduled to take place at Leeds on June 20.
“It was like, not even in my dreams, I thought I wanted to be the captain of the Indian cricket team. So, apart from all the silverware and trophies aside, I really would like to build a team culture where everyone is very secure and happy,” Gill told Skysports.
But Gill knew that the task was easier said than done.
“I know it can be a very difficult environment, especially with all the competition and the number of matches that we play, different squads coming in. But if I’m able to do that, I think that would be my goal,” he added.
“So, keeping a secure environment and making the player feel secure in his abilities and his capabilities I feel is one of the most important things that a leader has to do.”
Gill acknowledged that Rohit Sharma, who retired from Test cricket on May 7, had laid out a clear path for him.
“It can seem like he is not aggressive, but Rohit is very aggressive in terms of his tactics. He is someone who is very clear with his communication prior to the matches, during the series and even after the series, what he wants from the players.”
Gill said he wanted to follow the path of his predecessor Rohit, who had always put the team ahead of individuals.
“The kind of environment Rohit bhai kept, even if Rohit bhai is swearing at you, you would not take it to your heart. That’s just kind of his personality. I think that’s a great trait to have.
“He’s firm, but even if he’s being hard on you, you know that it’s not coming from his heart. It’s coming from a team perspective,” added Gill.
The 25-year-old said he had a conversation with Rohit on the road ahead for the team.
“This is a conversation that I’ve had with Rohit bhai a couple of times that ideally in the next 5, 7 or 10 or 15 years, where would we want the Indian cricket team culture to be?”
Gill also said he learned so much from the ‘proactive’ leadership of Virat Kohli.
“When I played under Virat, I think his proactiveness in Test matches with the field or with the ideas or with his thinking was something that I liked and that I picked up. If he thinks that, okay, this plan is not working, he would immediately have another plan, communicate to the bowler what he wants from them,” he noted.
Gill also provided a gist of his conversation with head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar before taking up the leadership role.
“They just want me to be able to express myself as a leader. I mean, that’s what they have told me, there are no expectations. They are not expecting me to, you know, to do something that I’m not capable of.
“But you definitely have some kind of expectations from yourself as a leader and as a player. So those are the expectations that I have from myself,” he added.
Gill also revealed that he hid all the captaincy talk even from his father, his biggest source of support in his career.
“I don’t even think he (father) dreamt of me being the Indian Test captain, like even myself as well. All I remember when I was young, all my dreams were to play for India and win matches.
“So yeah, he called me when the news broke out, I think a couple of days before. But I knew sometime before (the news flashed), but I didn’t tell him because I wanted to tell him when it’s official. But we had a very heartfelt conversation once he got to know that I’ve been named the captain,” he said.
Adapting to Gambhir’s style
Gill already has a taste of Gambhir’s style of coaching from his days at the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, but he was confident of adjusting to him in the national environment.
“Gautam bhai is very determined, very committed. And he’s also very clear with his communication, what he wants from the players and what kind of mindset that he would want the players to have.
“Gautam bhai focuses more on the kind of attitude or the mindset that he requires from the team or the players.”
Bumrah’s availability
Gill’s crisis management ability will be put to test when he will have to decide on the workload of premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
Chief selector Agarkar had already made it clear that it’s highly unlikely that India will have the services of Bumrah throughout the series.
“It’s more based on match to match and see how much workload there has been on him. That’s what we are trying to look at. You need to see how much workload he had in this particular match.
“We don’t want to have a predetermined mindset. Okay, these are the matches that he would want to play because there are so many factors that can not go in your favour in determining whether he is going to play the next match or not,” he explained.
Gill said he has not decided upon any plan to counter England’s ‘Bazball’ method of cricket in the series.
“I don’t want to have a preconceived notion of how I would want to go about things. There might be a case, you know, they can come out playing aggressive cricket and can lose a few wickets,” he said.
