The England tour this year was a revival of Shubman Gill, the batsman. The bulk of runs Gill — on his first assignment as India’s Test captain — scored in the series played a big role in his comeback into the T20I squad, where he is also deputy to skipper Suryakumar Yadav.
Gill is well too aware of how his responsibility has doubled, being in charge of both the Test and ODI teams. For some, bigger responsibility brings the best out of them, and in Gill’s case, he certainly has the quality and ability to take his game to the next level.
However, there’s no denying that being an all-format player, alongside his inclusion in the T20I leadership group, Gill has a bigger workload to deal with. The challenge, though, is “more mental than physical”.
“I would say I am still trying to figure out how to manage it,” Gill said on Thursday, when asked about his workload management.
“Starting from this year’s Asia Cup, we have been playing kind of back-to-back matches, travelling to different countries, switching between formats within four to five days. So, I am also trying to figure out what gives me the best chance to perform and succeed in all those formats I am going to play.
“But the challenge is definitely more mental than physical. Bodily, I feel fine. Obviously, there will be a little bit of jet lag when you are coming from Australia, as there is a huge time difference. But that apart, physically, I feel completely fine.
“Mentally, it can be challenging at times because the requirements for different formats in different places of the world are different. So, I think it is a good challenge and a good learning curve for me,” Gill explained.
During India’s training at the Eden on Thursday, Gill had a separate batting session against left-armers Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav under the watchful eyes of head coach Gautam Gambhir, shoring up efforts to negate the Proteas’ lead spinner Keshav Maharaj, also a left-armer. Whether such practice will help Gill in the opening Test remains to be seen, but the skipper seems to trust a hands-on approach to rationalise his batting and captaincy.
“In my preparations, I mainly focus on how I can succeed as a batsman. When we are there on the field and I’m captaining my side, I like my instincts to take over. That’s when I feel I make the best decisions tactically,” Gill said.
“It’s a conscious effort as whenever I am going out there as a batsman, I just want to play and make decisions as a batsman. I don’t want to think then as to how I would make a decision if I were the captain.
“Sometimes when you think that, you put too much pressure on yourself and you can’t take those small risks. required even in Test cricket, which give you the X-factor as a batsman. That’s how I try to rationalise my captaincy and my batting.”
As Test captain, Gill aggregates 946 runs with five centuries and a fifty, averaging a terrific 78.83. Numbers aren’t always important, but for Gill, these are too good as figures to buoy him up going into the Eden Test against a potent South African attack.