Why India chose Shubman Gill to take the hardest job in cricket: What lies behind the poker face, the similarities with Ben Stokes and how he's already clashed with England

If there was any doubt about Shubman Gill’s place in the pecking order of India Test captains, it is dispelled by his nickname.

Where one of his recent predecessors answered to ‘King Kohli’, Gill – the 37th man to take on cricket’s toughest job – goes by ‘Prince’. The moniker even appears on the sticker of his MRF-sponsored bat, leading to accusations on social media of arrogance.

After all, say the critics, Gill has a modest Test average of 35, a good 11 fewer than Virat Kohli. Outside Asia, it drops to 25. For the first time in living memory, India will be led by a non-Galactico. It feels as incongruous as it does intriguing.

Yet that is the risk India’s chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir have been prepared to take. They decided against giving the job to fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who has led India in three Tests but will not play every game, and they overlooked the more senior KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant.

At 25, Gill is the long-term appointment, and will be given the chance to lead a team who recently lost not only Kohli, but Rohit Sharma – the previous captain – and legendary spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

There is talk of moulding a new side. Instant success would be nice, but it is not a condition of the job. Gill, who has picked the brains of Kohli and Rohit, will have room to breathe.

He is softly spoken and eloquent, handsome but not self-regarding, and conscious of the burden he bears. He spent his 13-minute press conference at Headingley yesterday with his arms folded, mainly impassive, polite but poker-faced. Occasionally, he flashed a smile. It was all charmingly bland, blandly charming.

Asked what style his team would adopt, he replied: ‘You’re going to have to wait until August.’ And yet he clearly knows his own mind. ‘We want to create an environment in the team where everyone feels secure,’ he said. ‘I believe that’s when people’s best performances come, when they feel validated.

'It’s about clear communication, and giving them the confidence to go about their natural game. That’s how the bond between a leader and a player is the best.’ Had Ben Stokes been listening, he would have nodded along.

Jos Buttler, who recently played under Gill’s captaincy for Gujarat Titans in the IPL, has described him as a ‘really impressive young man’. Buttler added: ‘He’s pretty calm and measured when he speaks, but on the field he’s got a bit of fight about him. He’ll be a mix of Kohli and Rohit.’ Endorsements don’t come much higher.

As Buttler suggested, the polished exterior conceals a sharp edge, and Gill clashed with Jimmy Anderson and Jonny Bairstow during India’s 4–1 win over England at home in early 2024.

First he advised Anderson to retire, shortly before becoming his 699th Test victim. Then he asked a bristling Bairstow how many hundreds he had scored in the series. Polite and personable he may be, but he will not back down. Perhaps for this reason, India’s left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav believes Gill – who has already captained his country in five T20s – is ‘fully ready to lead us’.

Indian cricket is full of stories of hothoused youth, but Gill's path to the top seemed especially pre-ordained. Born in the Punjabi town of Fazilka near the border with Pakistan, he was moulded from an early age. His grandfather carved a bat for him from a tree trunk when he was four. Three years later, his father, Lakhwinder Singh Gill – a farmer – moved with Shubman to Mohali, the nearest metropolis, to give his cricket career a chance.

The story goes that Gill, now aged 12, was batting in the nets near the Mohali Test stadium when a coach who was organising a pace-bowling programme and in need of batsmen to face his young charges, stopped to watch.

He was impressed with what he saw, and Gill was soon in the Punjab age-group system, scoring 351 in an opening stand of 587 against Amritsar, and 268 in his fourth first-class game in the Ranji Trophy against Tamil Nadu. Aged 19, in an A-team Test against West Indies in Trinidad, he made 204 not out.

The sacrifices made by his father, who monitored Shubman’s cricket during the week, and tended the family farm at weekends, had paid off.

When his son made a century against Pakistan in the Under 19 World Cup in 2018, Lakhwinder said: ‘We have not attended any wedding festivities for years so that our son’s focus on cricket doesn’t waver.’

To judge by his unblinking, composed performance in front of the microphone, the lesson has been well learned. In the coming weeks, England’s bowlers will have to work hard to tease out the indiscretions.