“There were too many captains” - Murali Karthik on India having multiple captains in Leeds Test

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Murali Kartik feels the Indian Test captain Shubman Gill lacked authority during the Leeds Test as India failed to defend 371 runs in the fourth innings with England bagging a five-wicket victory to start off the Test series 1-0.

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Kartik asserted that Team India seemed to have multiple captains in the Leeds Test as several players offered inputs to the new Indian Test captain Gill, which turned out to be the turning point for Team India.

"We can look for excuses, but the problem is that we [India] scored 835 runs, one bowler picked up five wickets and despite that India lost the game by five wickets. I felt as if there were too many captains. I could not understand that,” Kartik said as quoted by NDTV.

Furthermore, Kartik reckoned that Gill was constantly receiving suggestions from players like KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. Though it would be fine to receive suggestions once or twice, it kept happening time and again, which wasn’t a good sign.

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“Sometimes KL Rahul was suggesting things, Rishabh Pant was suggesting things, Shubman Gill was doing it too, [so] who is the actual-appointed captain? I could not understand these signals being made. There is one captain. I understand that if a senior player sees someone out of the place once or twice they make suggestions, but it keeps happening again and again, which is not a good sign," he added.

Also, the former England skipper and commentator Nasser Hussain stated that Gill lacked the on-field aura that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli used to have on the field. Furthermore, he also stated that India seemed to have multiple captains.

"I saw someone finding his way. He (Gill) didn't quite have that on-field aura of Rohit and (Virat Kohli). I thought he followed the ball a lot and was reactive rather than proactive. When Rohit and Kohli captained, you looked down, and you immediately knew who was in charge, but when I looked down in this game I saw two or three captains, captaincy by committee," Hussain said on Sky Sports.

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