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Shubman Gill’s emergence in England as the deserving candidate for being India’s next long-term Test captain and of a reliable performer at the top of the order is a huge positive for India, former batting coach Sanjay Bangar has said. The gruelling five-match Test series in England was Gill’s first assignment as India’s captain in the longest format. The series itself was epic with every game going into the fifth day and it all ended with India managing to draw it 2-2 with a win that looked improbable for much of the penultimate day.
Gill himself was in record-breaking form throughout the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy scoring 754 runs runs at an average of 75.40 and with one double hundred and three hundreds under his belt in the series. It is the second highest tally of runs by a Test captain in a series, only behind Don Bradman’s tally of 810 runs as Australian captain in The Ashes in 1936-1937.
“I think this was also the first instance when he was getting a full series in England and that helps as a batter,” said Bangar on ESPNCricinfo. “If you have a great start at Headingley itself, then it sort of quite down all the nerves. Because India started so well, the number of batsmen who got runs in the very first Test match is extremely critical. Because you know scoring runs in England is very very valuable and if it comes right at the start of the series with 2 or 3 batsmen getting big scores means that the series is getting beautifully build up and that’s where Shubman getting those big knocks in the first four innings of the series itself meant that entire questions marks about his captaincy affecting his batsmanship just vapourised out of thin air and he also became far far confident as a leader.
“Because if you look at his leadership in the first test match and right up to the day five of the last Test match, there was a huge improvement. So clearly Shubman Gill (as a captain) was a huge positive for the Indian team.”
With a total of 430 runs scored in the Edgbaston Test alone Gill had posted the second-highest aggregate in a match, behind England batsman Graham Gooch’s aggregate of 456 runs against India in 1990. His haul at Edgbaston Test was also the highest by an away batsman in a Test match in England. Gill finished the series with four hundreds in five Test matches and it also meant that he became the first batsman from Asia to score 700 runs in a Test series played in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries. When asked about the earlier doubts about Gill’s captaincy prior to the series, Bangar was of the view that Gill will evolve with time.
“You think two things. Number one was basically about the combinations that he would have wanted to play. Now the thought process seems to be that they wanted batting depth all the time. And that is the theme that they persisted throughout out the series. So will he emulate that. I think only time will tell Only the second question mark comes: where can he use the spinners better? When can he use the spinners better? So there was a case where I believe on day four when Brook and Root were going very very strongly in pursuit of the chase, I think there was a place where spinners could have used for a slightly extended spell. I think usage of spin in overseas conditions , how smartly he can do that is going to be the thing wherein he will evolve, Overall in terms of his mannerism, how he dealt with the defeats and victories, I felt he seemed very very confident. He has shown those signs of improvement which one wants to see in a young leader,” shared Bangar.
When asked about his batting form post the win at The Oval, Gill had shared how he sees his batting as ‘very rewarding’ in the series. “Very rewarding, my aim was to be the best batter in this series and getting there is very satisfying. It’s always a matter of sorting things out technically and mentally, they are correlated,” Gill had told Sky Sports.
