“Can’t Have Captain Missing Games” - Ponting Puts His Weight Behind Gill’s Leadership

Shubman Gill was preferred over Jasprit Bumrah as the Indian skipper because of the latter’s inability to be available for the five-Test series in England. The Indian selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar felt that it’s the right time to hand over the reins of the Test team to the youngster, and let India’s trump card player in Bumrah be so that he can perform without the burden of captaincy. 

Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting also agreed with this logic and felt that it was the right decision to make Gill the skipper of the Indian Test side. 

“I actually think it’s the right move [to make Gill the Test captain],” Ponting told the ICC Review.

“I know there are a lot of other people out there, pundits out there saying they can’t understand why it wasn’t Bumrah and why they have gone to Shubman, but I think it’s pretty simple. 

“Bumrah’s injuries are holding him back a bit in the last couple of years, and you don’t want that with a captain. You can’t have a captain coming in and missing games here and there, so I think it’s the right decision. Now that they’ve made it, it’s one they’ve got to stick with and give him [Gill] a good crack at it for a long period of time,” he added.

Ponting also reflected on the Indian Test side undergoing a transition after the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The former World Cup-winning captain, who has also seen the Indian youngsters in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for more than a decade, felt that India has the right players to successfully make this transition, so that the loss of such key players isn’t felt in the side. 

“It’s always very hard to replace players like that, as they have been around for so long and have played that much Test cricket. But if any country can do it and do it quickly, India can, because of the amount of young talent that they have,” Ponting said.

“I’ve seen it first hand for 10 years now around the IPL and we’ve seen the emergence of [Yashasvi] Jaiswal and these sort of guys that have come into international cricket with India and done really well pretty much straight away. The skill side of it is one thing to replace, and India will replace the skill side of it easily enough, but the experience is the big thing that’s going to be missing for them. 

“Now, even with a young captain with Shubman Gill, they’ll still have some experience around with KL Rahul and Bumrah and these sorts of guys. But if you look at a rebuilding sort of phase, India can cope with it better than most other teams,” he added.