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Indian skipper Shubman Gill. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
India skipper Shubman Gill said on Thursday that he feels at home while playing at Eden Gardens, a stadium that shaped his formative years when he burst onto the scene for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL in 2018 after a successful U-19 World Cup campaign in the same year. It’s, however, ironic that since becoming captain of the India Test and ODI teams, Gill’s concept of ‘home’ has been basically living out of a suitcase.
The 26-year-old has been playing and juggling the three formats on a consistent basis. Gill played the England series from June-August. He was then announced as deputy for T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav for the Asia Cup in UAE which went on from September 9-28. There was little rest for the weary skipper however, with Gill then coming back to India to lead in the 2-match West Indies series which went on from October 2-October 14.
After the Windies series, Gill had to fly in for a white-ball tour to Australia, consisting of 3 ODIs and 5 T20Is, which started on October 19 and ended on November 8. That makes it 6 months on the road where Gill has played 7 Tests, 12 T20Is and 3 50-over matches. With the South Africa series starting on November 14 and its associated preparations, that doesn’t afford Gill much of a turnaround time.
Shubman Gill in action. (FILE photo)
That’s nearly 48 days of active match time cricket days, in the last five months after the IPL.
“I think in 4-5 days’ of turnaround, coming from another country and playing different formats is not easy. It’s mentally more challenging. There’s a good amount of time difference between India and Australia. So, the body takes a bit of time to get used to it. Then after coming here, there’s a different challenge of playing Test cricket in India as compared to playing white-ball cricket in Australia. Definitely, it’s a bit challenging mentally and physically. But as a professional cricketer, it’s about how you tackle these things,” Gill said in the pre-match press conference from the Eden Gardens.
“I am still trying to figure out how to manage it. I think the workload, starting from the Asia Cup, we have been playing kind of back-to-back, travelling to different countries, switching between formats within 4 to 5 days. So, I am also trying to figure out what gives me the best chance to be able to perform and succeed in all those formats that I am going to play. But the challenge is definitely more mental than physical. Bodily, I feel fine. There’s obviously a little bit of jet lag when you are coming from Australia. Apart from that, physically I feel completely fine. It’s a bit challenging at times because the requirements for different formats in different places of the world are different so I think it’s a good challenge and a good learning curve for me” he added.
Shubman Gill in action for Gujarat Titans. (FILE photo)
If you look at the time before getting captaincy, Gill was mostly playing in the 2 formats-ODI and Tests- with sporadic T20I appearances. He played in the Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe T20I series in 2024 but did not take part in the ensuing shortest format matches vs Bangladesh (October 2024), South Africa (November 2024) and England (Early 2025). With India likely to go for an all-format captain in the future, Gill’s increased presence in the T20I scheme of things all but confirms his eventual ascendancy in the shortest format after current skipper SKY.
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Managing his workload will be Indian cricket’s biggest challenge.
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