‘Something that I aspire’: Shubman Gill hails Rohit Sharma as captain for THESE qualities

Ahead of the India vs West Indies 2nd Test match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, captain Shubman Gill revealed his relationship with Gautam Gambhir. At the same time, he spoke about the outgoing captain Rohit Sharma.

“Our relationship is really good. It's very simple, actually. We always try to have conversations around how we can make the players feel more secure and what kind of combinations we can play,” Shubman Gill said.

“We sort of want to look at an 18- or a 15-member squad where we are constantly picking players from that punch and from that squad,” he added.

Shubman Gill said his key discussions with Gautam Gambhir focused on developing fast bowlers. According to him, India already have a strong pool of pacers but need to keep identifying and training new ones.

The goal is to ensure they get enough opportunities, especially during overseas tours in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, he added.

Shubman Gill has replaced Rohit Sharma as India’s ODI captain for the upcoming Australia tour. He was asked during the pre-match press meet what he had learned from the outgoing captain, a legend of the game.

“There are so many qualities that I inherited from Rohit bhai. The calmness that he possesses and the kind of friendship that he has within the group is something that I aspire. These are the qualities that I want to take from him,” he said.

Captain Gill also said that, no matter who the opposition was, Team India must maintain its own standards.

“We want to be able to play at our own intensity and we want to maintain our own standards,” Shubman Gill said.

“I don't think your intensity drops down depending on the opposition. It doesn't matter who we are playing; we want to be able to play at our own intensity,” he further said.

“When you're playing for India, you don't need external motivation to be able to up your intensity. It doesn't matter if you're playing West Indies, Bangladesh, Australia or England,” he added.

India vs West Indies

Team India have opted for the same squad as they had in the 1st Test against the visitors.

India playing XI

Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

On October 10, Shubman Gill won the toss and decided to bat first.