Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 7 : Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said that the move to hand over Indian red-ball captaincy to youngster Shubman Gill was a "right move" and "leadership sits well with him" given his fine run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Gujarat Titans.
Gill will be leading a new-look Indian team for five-match tour of England from June 20 onwards. The tour will kickstart the ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle for India and will be their first series since the retirement of senior legends Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Gill was made the new Test captain ahead of the series, with Rishabh Pant as his deputy. Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, one of the strongest contenders for captaincy, could not land the position due to injury and workload issues.
The decision to hand Gill the captaincy ahead of more senior players like Jasprit Bumrah or Rishabh Pant did not surprise Ponting, with the Australian legend believing the 25-year-old can flourish in the role at Test level.
"I actually think it is the right move," Ponting told The ICC Review as quoted by ICC.
"I know there is a lot of other people out there, pundits out there saying they cannot understand why it was not Bumrah and why they have gone to Shubman, but I think it is pretty simple."
"Bumrah's injuries are holding him back a bit in the last couple of years, and you do not want that with a captain. You cannot have a captain coming in and missing games here and there, so I think it's the right decision."
"Now that they have made it, it is one they have got to stick with and give him a good crack at it for a long period of time. Even just looking back at the way he has handled this current GT (Gujarat Titans) team through this IPL, I think leadership sits really well with him."
"And the important thing for me with leadership as well as if you're a batter and you are a captain, you have to be scoring runs. And Shubman is doing that in IPL and I think the timing is right and I think you will have a good captain who'll make a lot of Test runs going forward," he concluded.
While Gill took GT to playoffs (eliminated in the eliminator after loss to Mumbai Indians) and scored 650 runs with six fifties striking at well above 155, it his Test record which has attracted scrutiny, scoring 1,893 runs in 32 Tests at an average of 35.05, with five centuries and seven fifties in 59 innings. Since his iconic 91 at Gabba to hand Australia a series loss in 2021, Gill has not touched 40 runs in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia (SENA) conditions, scoring 255 in 15 innings at an average of 17.00.
However, Ponting feels that if Gill is played at number four to protect him from the new ball, India can get the best out of him.
"I think (Sai) Sudarshan and (Yashasvi) Jaiswal will open the batting (in England) as Sudarshan just looks like a class player to me and technically I think he could do well at Test level," Ponting said.
"They will have two pretty young opening batters, so they might look to go for someone with a bit more experience at No.3."
"Whether that is KL (Rahul) or Karun (Nair) at No.3, Shubman might end up being that No.4 player, which will probably make life for him a little bit easier as a captain as well. Not having to open or bat at No.3 as a young captain might make it easier. Their top five will probably be Sudarshan, Jaiswal, KL, Gill and Karun Nair for the start of the England series," he concluded.
At number three, Gill has made 1,019 runs in 17 Tests at an average of 37.74, with three tons and fifties each in 30 innings.
The series will be held from June to August 2025, with matches scheduled at Headingley in Leeds, Edgbaston in Birmingham, Lord's and The Oval in London, and Old Trafford in Manchester.
Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.