Jos Buttler opens up on Shubman Gill’s captaincy ahead of ENG vs IND 2025 Tests

England wicket-keeper bat Jos Buttler believes Shubman Gill has a mix of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s captaincy traits ahead of the Test series against Three Lions. Gill has the experience of playing under Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s leadership and must have picked crucial qualities from the veteran duo.

Buttler observed Gill’s leadership from close quarters in IPL 2025 when the opening batter led the franchise to the playoffs. Gill also led from the front, scoring 650 runs in 15 matches at an average of 50 and a strike rate of 155.87.

Meanwhile, Gill has been handed over the Test captaincy baton after Rohit Sharma’s retirement and the youngster will begin his captaincy stint with a tough tour of England.

Speaking to his former teammate Stuart Broad on ‘For the Love of Cricket’ podcast, Buttler said, “Pretty calm and measured when he speaks but interesting, on the field I think he has got a bit of fight, bit of intensity. I think he’ll be a mix of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. I think Kohli sort of aggressive, really transformed the Indian team, in- -your-face, up for the contest. Rohit, on the other side, a bit more laidback, cool, calm, and collected customer but with that sort of fight.”

“I feel like from my time of knowing Shubman Gill, he’ll be a bit in the middle. I think he’s obviously learned from those two guys, been around those two guys a bit, but he’ll be very much his own man. What I liked about something he talked about as well is he talked about compartmentalising batting and captaining.”

“So when he is batting, he just wants to be a batter and then he will try and work on his captaincy and try and separate the two roles which I think when you are doing such a big role being the captain of the Indian cricket team is he’ll have to try and do that well enough and have some good people supporting him.”

“He’s obviously captained two seasons of IPL cricket which is a big pressurised job. Kohli is the king, Shubman Gill is the prince. That’s the sort of narrative they spin out there.”

The opening Test match between India and England will be played at Leeds, Headingley, from June 20 onwards.