"Shubman Gill Needs To Trust Him": T20 World Cup Winner Advocates More Responsibility For Star

In captain Shubman Gill's era, India face a tough task of qualifying for the World Test Championship final. Losses in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and in the home Test series against South Africa have made it extremely hard for the side to enter the title clash of the ICC event. Former India batter Robin Uthappa feels there's room for improvement for Shubman Gill as Test captain. He added that Gill may be undermining spinners like Washington Sundar.

"I think Shubman, as a captain, needs to trust him [Washington Sundar]. Because certain players feel they can play a bowler easily, they don't value skill as much as the next person, because he feels like he's an easy bowler [to play against]. It's human nature. It's happened in Indian cricket before. But for the development of Indian cricket, Washington and Kuldeep have to play a lot of Test matches and bowl a bulk of overs," Uthappa said.

"We can win matches by batting, but to win a series, the bowling unit has to fire. For that, you need to develop players. We need to give exposure to bowlers. Kuldeep Yadav should bowl 20-25 overs, make him used to that."

Earlier, Sundar gave an interesting reply when asked why Shubman Gill didn't use him on Day 3 of the fourth Test against England in the first innings at Old Trafford in Manchester in July.

A broadcaster asked: "Did your captain [Shubman Gill] forget that you can bowl in the first innings?"

"I'm not giving any headlines this time," replied Sundar. Former England cricketers Stuart Broad and Nasser Hussain started laughing too.

"You need to work on your tips and hints out there. 'I'm loose, I'm ready to go' (imitating warming up)."

"Most of the time, I am around the square, so I'm sure I cross him every now and then. But yeah, whatever the team needs."

Topics mentioned in this article

Shubman Gill India Cricket Team Washington Sundar Robin Uthappa Cricket