Former England cricketers David Lloyd and Alastair Cook had differing opinions on Shubman Gill鈥檚 captaincy, which has become a significant talking point following India鈥檚 historic loss in the first Test of the five-match series for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in Leeds. Despite dominating the majority of the action over the first four days, India handed the game to England on Day 5 due to poor bowling and fielding errors.
Lloyd criticised Gill鈥檚 approach, describing it as 鈥榬eactive rather than proactive鈥. However, former England captain Cook was more understanding, comparing Gill鈥檚 situation to Ben Stokes鈥 early days as England鈥檚 Test team captain.
鈥淭he intrigue is with Shubman Gill, who鈥檚 a very inexperienced skipper. How鈥檚 he going to come back from that? He鈥檚 got Ravindra Jadeja and Karun Nair, who are in their 30s. So he鈥檚 got experience in his team. It鈥檚 great having a young team that he鈥檚 got. But tactically, he鈥檚 reactive rather than proactive in the stuff that he鈥檚 doing,鈥 Lloyd was quoted as saying on Sky Sports鈥 Stick to Cricket podcast.
How Cook Defended Gill
Cook responded by saying that it takes time for a team to gel under a new captain.
鈥淲hen you take over a team, there will always be a phase when the team gets used to the new leader. This happened with (Ben) Stokes when he came in. It took a while (for England players) to get used to him when he came in and said, 鈥榃e鈥檙e going to try and smash every ball鈥,鈥 Cook replied.
Despite vice-captain Rishabh Pant scoring centuries in each innings of the opening Tests and other key batters like KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Gill himself hitting their respective tons, India failed to achieve bigger totals in both innings and also dropped crucial catches. This is the first time in Indian cricket history that a team lost a Test after five individual hundreds were scored by its batters.
India collapsed from 430/3 in the first innings to 471, losing seven wickets for 41 runs. In the second innings, they crumbled to 364 all out from 333/4, losing six wickets for 31 runs.
On Day 5, India could not defend a fourth-innings target of 371 under overcast conditions, with England comfortably chasing it down with five wickets to spare.