TimesofIndia.com in Leeds: “Kinni der? (how long)”, asked Arshdeep Singh when he stood on top of his run-up to bowl to Shubman Gill in the nets. The Indian skipper was expectedly not done yet and said, “jad tak tu paa denga (for as long as you can bowl)”. The left-armer was happy to bowl more but just asked for a break of 4-5 minutes before hitting full tilt again.Another marathon Gill session was underway, and batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had to summon the throwdown experts Daya and Nuwan, who were cooling their heels after feeding balls to Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. “Naya ball se daalna Daya bhai (bowl with the new ball),” came the immediate instruction from the right-hander who faced a mix of quicks, finger spin, wrist spin and throwdowns for close to an hour in the nets.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!There was no shortage of crisp drives, neat flicks and a lot of banter in Punjabi as the two Mohali boys were at it. They even remembered their age-group teammate Ikjot Singh Thind when a net bowler’s delivery came back sharply to surprise Gill. “Ikjot di tara paa reya hai (he is bowling like Ikjot),” Arshdeep told Gill, and the action continued.For that duration at Headingley Cricket Ground on June 19, it was just Gill and what he loves to do the most – bat for hours in the nets. The build-up and the chatter have revolved around his captaincy, but this is a very crucial series as far as Gill, the Test batter, is concerned.After an under-par series in Australia, the youngster would like to have a good series and make crucial contributions for the side at a new number. The No. 4. After starting out as an opener and then himself asking for No. 3, Gill decided to move one number down after Virat Kohli announced his retirement from the format. “After Virat bhai retired, me and GG bhai had a discussion about it and we were both clear that he wanted me to be at number four and I was also clear that I also wanted to be at that number,” said Gill during the pre-match presser.
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Most of the questions revolved around captaincy, start of the new era in Indian cricket, the youngsters, the inexperience and Gill handled it with a lot of maturity and clarity. When asked about what he would pick between winning a five-Test series or the IPL, the former was his quick pick.He remained measured in his responses and asserted how the focus will remain on picking 20 wickets, even if it comes at the cost of extending the tail.“I think in Test matches, if you want to win a Test match, you can’t win a Test match without taking 20 wickets no matter how many times you score. So that has been one of our key discussion points, you know, how are we going to take 20 wickets and there might be a case where we would only be going with six broad batters and we would see a bowling all-rounder and three to four fast bowlers or the proper bowlers,” explained Gill.
When the captain’s commitments were done and he had a look at the playing surface with coach Gautam Gambhir, Gill returned to usual business when he padded up. The batter Gill took centrestage, and it’s something he wants to do everytime he walks out to bat in whites.“When I want to go out there and bat, I just want to play as a batsman and not really want to think that I’m the captain of the game because I think that sometimes puts too much pressure on me. Whenever I’m going out there, I want to play as a batsman and want to dominate the opposition and be the best batsman in the series. And that’s what I’m trying to look at,” said Gill.If Gill — the batter — clicks, life will be much easier for Gill — the captain — this summer.
