Former Indian star speaks about how Shubman Gill will have to lead India’s test team from the front

Shubman Gill was appointed India’s full-time Test captain on Saturday May 24, along with Rishabh Pant being named as his deputy. The upcoming Test series will mark the beginning of new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle for both India and England.

Harbhajan accepted the decision to sign Shubman Gill as captain but said there are challenges ahead. While speaking on TV show ‘Who’s the Boss’, he said “Obviously it is a great move, having a young captain like Shubman Gill who has done well in franchise cricket, But this is going to be a tough tour, England has never been an easy tour.“

Harbhajan pointed out how absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be a void that needs to be filled, so Shubman will have to lead from the front. “This is a young team. There is no Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, suddenly there is a big gap in that team and that also needs to be filled, so Shubman will have to lead from the front,” he said.

Harbhajan said Gill’s side should be given time to find their feet and not be judged too early in case they lose the series to England. “I will also like to ask people to not start judging too early even if this tour doesn’t go their way. It is okay even if they do not win, they will be learning (from it). I have the belief that all those who are going on this tour will get better,” Harbhajan said.

India’s squad for England tour:
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC/wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav