Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif reckons Shubman Gill’s captaincy is still work-in-progress amid the ODI series against the West Indies. Kaif said Gill can not give an excuse of flat pitches for his captaincy and he needs experienced bowlers to guide the rookie pacers in the team.
India played with Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar and Auqib Nabi Dar in the second ODI and the trio was taken to the cleaners by the West Indies batters. The tourists went on to post a gargantuan total of 405-7 on the board after Gill decided to bowl first.
Under Gill’s leadership in ODIs, India has won eight games and have suffered six losses in 14 matches.
“It’s hurting me that he’s not able to see these things. I don’t know who is telling him things behind. First he has to accept that he is still learning captaincy and that is why he needs experienced bowlers. This is why the captaincy is getting exposed. You cannot become a good captain by giving excuse of flat pitch. Flat pitches will always be there. It has been there since ages. I feel Shubman Gill will have to be smart here and bring in a mix of experienced and new bowlers. If Nabi is getting hit, how will Gurnoor help him? A senior bowler can help the young bowlers. You cannot play all young bowlers. You are destroying careers of young bowlers as well,” Mohammad Kaif explained in a video on his YouTube channel.
The former UP batter highlighted that Gill is a young captain and the transition has happened a bit too early for him.
“Shubman Gill is a young captain. If you see any experienced captain or older players, by the time they got ODI captaincy, they had played a lot of games already. The transition has happened very early for Gill. The others had a lot of support of senior players as well. Gill does not have that support really. He has to think about this. He is a young captain and a work in progress himself,” he said.
“He is heading towards understanding how to be a good captain. In this, if you get inexperienced bowling like this, his captaincy will not run for long. Even if it is a flat track, senior bowlers will find ways to deliver. A young team and a young captain is a bad combination. That was exposed and it was seen that he had no idea when so many runs were getting scored,” he added.
Kaif urged Gill to find and back skillful bowlers under his leadership, adding he needs to be patient with rookie bowlers.
“This weakness will never convert into strength if you give guys just few games or few overs. A young bowler needs time. If you have picked them, give them the stability. Don’t drop immediately if they don’t do well. You can never build a team like this. Skill-wise, we have gone down in bowling. Give the ball to guys like Bhuvneshwar and they will get the ball to swing no matter what the pitch is. My advice to Shubman Gill is to back skillful bowlers,” he said.
The third ODI between India and the West Indies will be played at New Chandigarh on Saturday.
