“He's come a long way” - Former Indian cricketer backs Shubman Gill as Test captain for a long time

Former Indian batter WV Raman has reckoned that the new Indian Test captain Shubman Gill will get the backing of the BCCI selection committee for a long time, which should give him a lot of confidence, going into the five-match Test series against England.

Notably, India is scheduled to take on England in the five-match Test series, starting on June 20 at Headingley, Leeds. With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announcing Test retirements, there would be a lot of pressure on the young Indian captain.

It’s important to note that Raman was India U19 head coach on the tour of England in 2017 when Gill was part of the side. He stated that Gill is picked as captain to allow him to do well in both his roles as captain and batter.

"He's come a long way since we spent some time in England when he was a part of the Under-19 side. What he's done well is to try and identify the areas he needs to improve and he's done that. Even starting with conversing in English, he's made leaps and bounds in terms of improving the areas that he needed to. As far as Gill is concerned, I think he's aware of the fact that he will not be just a stop-gap option,” said Raman to IANS in an exclusive interaction organised by Sony Sports Network.

"He knows that the selectors will back him for a while. So, that should give him a lot of confidence, even as a batter, because if he was not the captain, maybe he might be feeling a little bit insecure and he might think that the axe is definitely hanging above his head. But now that he's made the captain, I think he doesn't need to even have those kinds of thoughts, which will obviously help him to get runs," he added.

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