“Shubman Gill led better than Ben Stokes” - Mohammad Kaif opens up after India’s Leeds Test defeat

Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif has stated that the Indian Test captain Shubman Gill led his side better than the English skipper Ben Stokes in the concluded Leeds Test, which India lost by five wickets to start off the five-match series on the back foot.

Notably, Gill has been elevated as the new Indian Test captain by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee after the veteran batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their Test retirements ahead of the England tour.

“As a young captain, Gill did brilliantly by giving Bumrah 4-4 overs and rotating him well. He led better than Ben Stokes. Well done, thumbs up,” Mohammad Kaif said on his YouTube channel.

With no support from the Leeds surface, Indian bowlers failed to create an impact in the fourth innings, despite setting 371 runs as a target in front of English batters. Interestingly, England went on to win the game by five wickets without any major hiccups on the Day 5 surface.

Kaif stated that Gill was a helpless captain as he was playing only with Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, as other bowlers, namely, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, and Shardul Thakur, couldn’t live up to the expectations. 

“Helpless captain, because he was playing with one and a half bowlers. One is Bumrah, and the remaining half is Jadeja. There was no support from Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, or Shardul. You can’t win the Test match with 1.5 bowlers. He did captaincy very well and looked good to me. He used his resources well,” he added.

Furthermore, Kaif heaped praises on the Indian captain Shubman Gill as a batter. Notably, Gill smacked his first-ever century in England in the first innings of the Leeds Test. A total of five centuries were scored by the Indian batters in total of the opening Test.

“I will praise him (Gill) a lot because it was a big Test for him in this series. It was important for him to score in England. Everyone said he doesn’t know how to play in England, [you] made him captain, but hasn’t scored runs. But he passed the Test with the bat, scored a century, excellent batting. Apart from captaincy, he showed he can deliver with the bat,” he concluded.

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