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Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir has opened up on the hard decision of giving Test captaincy to Shubman Gill ahead of the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy. Notably, a few months later, he was also elevated to the ODI skipper while he emerged as the vice-captain in the T20I side.
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For the unversed, after the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from the longest format of the game, the Indian selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, appointed Gill as the new Test captain for the England tour.
Speaking on Star Sports, Gambhir revealed his first-ever conversation with Gill after the latter became the new Test captain of the national team. Furthermore, the head coach also heaped praise on Gill for handling the immense pressure on his maiden tour as captain in the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy.
"I remember that entire conversation. I told him one thing very clearly: 'We have thrown you into a deep sea, and there are only two paths from here. Either you will drown or you will become a world-class swimmer'," Gambhir said on Star Sports.
"For me, those 750 runs don't matter. If Shubman hadn't made those 750 runs on the England tour, he would have made them on the next tour. Because of his quality. For me, the way a 25-year-old kid, with a young team, handled himself, his captaincy, handled the team, handled the pressure, against a quality England side (is what matters). I don't think there is a test more difficult than that in captaincy," he observed.
Interestingly, Gill went on to score 754 runs from 10 innings on the England tour, emerging as the leading run-scorer of the five-match Test series. Moreover, he led the Indian team to a series levelling 2-2 scoreline after a narrow six-run win in the fifth and final Test.
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