IND vs ZIM: ‘Captaincy’ plays a huge role in the game of cricket, unlike several other sports. The current series against Zimbabwe has seen a new Indian skipper, Shubman Gill, in the absence of the senior pros.
Shubman Gill was also seen leading the IPL franchise team Gujarat Titans in IPL 2024 after they parted ways with title-winning captain Hardik Pandya. Gill though had to see a major drop in form after being named the new captain. So young a captain was never seen in IPL before.
Gill scored 890 runs in the previous edition of the IPL 2023 but saw a major drop in the next season with just 426 runs, which is not even half the score the promising young batter had scored in the last season. Alongside this, Gill was very inconsistent, not able to score well in over half of the matches he played in 2024; this proved that captaincy is too much pressure for the youngster.
After such an unconvincing performance in the IPL, he could not make it to India’s T20 World Cup squad; however, despite all odds, Gill was chosen as the skipper of a young Indian team for their tour to Zimbabwe.
However, taking them lightly went wrong for the Indian team in the series opener as Raza led Zimbabwe to shock the Men in Blue. Shubman Gill has not been in the best of touch, as he scored a run-a-ball 31 in the first game and could not lead the Men In Blue to victory with a low-score target of 116.
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He even could not contribute when the Indians wreaked havoc at Harare in the second T20I as the Indian team scored a massive 234 runs. Provided with captaincy at such a young age, is that a burden for the promising young talent from India?
India records an immense legacy with young captains, with legendary skipper Kapil Dev lifting the first ever World Cup for India just at the age of 24, the same as the current age of Shubman Gill. However, with several senior players remaining in the India side, with the likes of Pandya and Pant, the captaincy role for Gill seems to be too early a call.
As believed by cricket analysts, Shubman Gill should be relieved of all burdens and given a free ticket to explore his hand with the willow. With the Sri Lanka series approaching hopefully, the new Indian coach will step in to provide someone else with the captaincy role, while Gill will be seen as India’s first-choice opening batsman and a probable contender to replace veteran Virat Kohli in the shortest format of the game.