Vikram Rathour: Leadership brought out the best in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and it will do the same for Shubman Gill: Shubman Gill was named captain of the Gujarat Titans in less than a year, helped India’s reserve squad defeat Zimbabwe 4-1, and was then promoted to vice captain for both the Twenty20 Internationals and the One-Day Internationals by the selectors.
During Sunday, July 14, 2024, at the Harare Sports Club in Harare, during the Twenty20 cricket match between Zimbabwe and India, Indian batter Shubman Gill is seen in play.
Shubman Gill’s nonverbal cues gave former India batting coach Vikram Rathour confidence that he would be a capable captain and that the BCCI made the right choice in selecting him to be the vice-captain of the country’s T20 and ODI teams.
Whether he was leading a T20 series in Zimbabwe or playing for the Gujarat Titans, he performed admirably in everything I saw him do. He has demonstrated excellent body language, which is essential when taking the lead. The BCCI has given him more responsibility now that he is vice captain, and I am confident he will succeed in this capacity,” Rathour says.
Rathour cited two instances involving Shubman to support his claim that he was mature.
The first was when Gill went up to Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma’s leadership group and told them he wanted to bat third in Test matches. Rathour had more respect for him because this occurred at a stretch of time when he was having trouble scoring runs—he hadn’t scored fifty in twelve innings. In the Vizag Test against England in February, he made a match-winning hundred in the second innings after failing in the first Test against England.
It was him who spoke. He believed that batting at number three was his best position, and the management team agreed. Rathour states, “He made the decision, which Rahul, myself, and Rohit supported, and he turned it around in the England series.
Another important aspect was Gill’s awareness of the game during his early years with the Indian squad.
“My first thoughts upon seeing him in the nets were the same as everyone else’s. I talked about his unique gift and saw exactly what everyone was talking about. I was instantly struck by the idea, “Whoa, this kid is really talented,” when I first watched him play.
His game knowledge, which is something you don’t often see in young cricket players coming through the ranks, is what most struck me. Rathour claims that he was well-versed in his craft, knew how to bat in many scenarios, and never backslid from a task.
I was very impressed by his game awareness.Rathour, who spent five years coaching India’s batting team, believes that giving Shubman a leadership position will improve his game and turn out to be a brilliant move.
