Shubman Gill’s first Test as India’s full-time captain has sparked a chorus of concern, not only for the team’s defeat but for the manner in which it unfolded. After India failed to defend a fourth-innings target of 371, with England comfortably chasing it down to win by five wickets, former players have questioned Shubman Gill’s approach, with one describing the tactics as more reactive than assertive.
When Shubman Gill walked out for the toss in Leeds, England, for the first time as Test captain last week, it marked a generational shift in Indian cricket. In the new era, post–Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma—the two previous captains of Team India, now retired from the longest format—there will be a shift. Not just on the field, but in Indian cricket culture as a whole.
At 25,Shubman Gill represents a transformation: in playing style and public presence. Also how a national captain projects identity in the age of social media, fashion campaigns, and digital storytelling.
Shubman Gill’s ineffective captaincy was a talking point of India’s defeat in 1st Test
Shubman Gill’s cricketing merit remains undisputed, with over 2,000 runs in Test matches and even more impressive figures in One-Day Internationals. In his first Test innings as captain at Leeds, Shubman Gill scored a fluent 147, filled with old-school elegance and classical off-side play that’s his hallmark.
But his ascension to leadership comes not solely on the back of runs. It is also a testament to his relatively clean, non-controversial image and his soft-spoken demeanour. Shubman Gill’s method of leadership is likely to be a modern hybrid—neither as animated as Kohli nor as laid-back as Sharma.  Shubman Gill appears far more conscious of his image than his predecessors were when they became captains, which could have a trickle-down effect on how he leads.
Every new era in cricket needs a strong start—a solid first brick in the foundation. For Shubman Gill, that first Test as India’s new red-ball captain ended in disappointment, as England chased down 371 in Leeds to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.But despite the setback, Shubman Gill remained composed in his post-match presentation, offering a candid assessment of where things went wrong for his team.
India were not outplayed across all five days. In fact, for large parts of the game, they held the upper hand. Five different Indian batters notched up centuries—Shubman Gill himself, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, and a sensational twin hundreds by Rishabh Pant. But the problem lay in what happened between those moments of brilliance.
In both innings, India collapsed dramatically after being in dominant positions. From 430/3 in the first innings, they lost their last seven wickets for just 41 runs. In the second innings, it was 287/3 at one point, but the final total read 364. The inability of the middle and lower order to capitalise proved costly.
Speaking after the match, Shubman Gill acknowledged this pattern. He noted that India were in commanding positions in both innings but failed to finish strong. He admitted that they had to address the issue going into the second Test.
India’s fielding also left much to be desired. The team dropped multiple catches across both innings—six in total—with Yashasvi Jaiswal putting down four himself. One of them came when Ben Duckett was on 97; he went on to score 149 and win the Player of the Match award. Shubman Gill did not shy away from addressing this. He admitted that the team needs to improve in the field and take their chances, especially on crucial final-day pitches where one missed opportunity can turn the game.
The loss was made tougher by the fact that England’s 371-run chase was their second-highest successful fourth-innings pursuit in Test history—and the highest ever at Headingley. Zak Crawley and Duckett’s 188-run opening stand set the tone, and India’s bowlers, including star names like Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, struggled to make breakthroughs.
Still, Shubman Gill wasn’t overly critical. He acknowledged that the side was young and learning, and believed they would improve with time. Despite the early loss, his leadership tone was mature, focused on growth rather than blame. Also Former Australian keeper Brad Haddin has slammed Shubman Gill for his reactive captaincy in the 1st test and asked for change in his captainship.
Brad Haddin emphasizes on Shubman Gill brigade’s fielding
Brad Haddin believes India’s catching issues in the first Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy were more than an on-off and instead an ‘attitude’ problem in the set-up. He feels that new skipper Shubman Gill requires and ‘attitude adjustment’ from the team if he has to leave a memorable legacy with his tenure.
India spilled as many as 10 catches at Headingley as England turned the tightly-contested match into an easy five-wicket victory to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Most of those drops came from young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, but regular safe-hands like Ravindra Jadeja also faltered.
“Every great team, no matter what year you’re playing, the one stand out feature they’ve always had is that they’ve been a great fielding team,” Haddin said on the LiSTNR Podcast.
“And I think that is one legacy Gill has start to leave now on this team. He needs an attitude adjustment. If you want to field well and compete the whole time, it’s only attitude. You can do all your technical work off the field and have as many coaches as anyone, but it won’t matter. Even in the IPL this year, the catching was horrible. And that could be a byproduct,” he added.
While India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak brushed the incident aside as a rarity, former India great Ravichandran Ashwin attributed it to the difficulty in adjusting to the Duke’s ball — harder and bigger than the one used in India, the SG — in cold conditions. The retirements of seniors like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, and exits of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, have not only left the team in a batting transition but also uprooted the years-old slip cordon system.
Haddin also believes that come the second Test on Wednesday (July 2) at Edgbaston, India’s top order will be under immense pressure because of the double failures of the middle and the lower order at Headingley.
“What hasn’t happened for the first time is India’s batting collapse. There’s a lot of pressure on that top order. If you get through them, they will run through the remaining,” said Haddin.
Shubman Gill’s captaincy may not have started with a win, but his calm, clear-headed reflections gave a glimpse into his potential as a long-term leader. The road ahead is long—and for Gill and India, this may just be the tough lesson they needed to set the tone right ahead of the 2nd Test at Edgbaston on 2nd July .
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