‘Kohli would not have such defensive field’ – Sanjay Manjrekar on Shubman Gill’s captaincy after Headingley defeat

Shubman Gill did not have the kind of start to his Test captaincy tenure as he would have envisaged as India lost the first Test of the Anderson-Tendullkar Trophy against England by five wickets at Headingley, Leeds.

Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar opined that Shubman was trying to prevent the England batters from hitting boundaries, hoping that wickets would come as a byproduct.

“Most people felt Shubman Gill went too defensive. But I think he was trying to trap England by cutting off boundaries, hoping the wickets would come eventually,” said Manjrekar on JioHotstar after the conclusion of the match.

Manjrekar compared Shubman’s captaincy style to that of India’s most successful Test skipper, Virat Kohli. The cricketer-turned-commentator stated that Kohli would have approached the game with a much more aggressive mindset than Shubman.

“I hate to bring Virat Kohli as a comparison, as Shubman Gill is a young captain, but he would not have put such a defensive field. That’s different from someone like Virat Kohli, who might say: We have enough runs, I’ll get you all out before Tea. Whether he would have gotten wickets with an attacking field is not guaranteed, but he would have been at it,” Manjrekar said.

He’s a new captain, and we should be understanding of that: Manjrekar

While Manjrekar admitted that England’s bowling attack has more all-round options, he suggested that Shubman should look to be a bit more attacking in his approach before going defensive. However, the veteran commentator went on to cut Shubman some slack as he has just taken up the role of captaincy.

“Gill doesn’t have the same seam attack as England-though they don’t have Bumrah but English team has more all-round options. Even with Jadeja, I felt India should’ve started with a standard field rather than pre-empting reverse sweeps. You want to start with attacking intent-even if only for a few overs-before going defensive. That said, I don’t want to be overly critical of Shubman. He’s a new captain, and we should be understanding of that,” he added.