How Shubman Gill's time in south Wales prepared him for India captaincy success

Independent

6 days ago

Shubman Gill has driven England to distraction so far this summer.
And the irony won't have been lost on Mark Wallace, Glamorgan's director of cricket.
'The only issue he had off the field when he was with us, was getting his club car nicked,' he tells The Independent. 'He came in one morning and told us he had left it outside, gone to bed and when he woke up, it had gone!'
He may not have been able to locate his car in south Wales, but the India captain – who spent a month at Glamorgan for the final four matches of the 2022 County Championship season – hasn't missed the opportunity to prove that the scale of the job he has taken on has had no impact on his ability to score runs.
Lots of them.
So far in this series, the 25-year-old has greedily accumulated a jaw-dropping 585 runs at an average of 146. If he carries on like this, he could well surpass the 974 run series record set by Sir Donald Bradman way back in 1930.
His runscoring feats with Glamorgan were more modest but Wallace believes his quality was obvious as soon as he walked through the Sophia Gardens' gates.
'You could tell he kind of had a touch of the genius about him,' he says. 'What was interesting was that he was desperate to come and play, he was so keen to get that county experience under his belt to prepare himself for the kind of knocks we've seen him score in this series.
'He fitted in really well, he was young then, but he got 90-odd in his first game (against Worcestershire at Cardiff), he got a century (scoring 119 against Sussex at Hove in the final game of the season) and fitted in well.
'It was noticeable that he was real scholar of the game. He knew a lot about county cricket, he knew our coaches' records, all that kind of business. He has kept in touch with a few of lads too.
'They will tap him up for a couple of his bats if he's knocking around!'
Gill will be unlikely to part with any of the willows that have delivered three hundreds in four run-soaked innings at Headingley and Edgbaston.
Any questions of his ability to handle perhaps one of the most onerous jobs in world sport have been emphatically answered.
From Glamorgan's perspective, they have previous when it comes to attracting to Indian captains across the Severn Bridge.
Sourav Ganguly, who captained India in 49 Tests, also played 12 first class matches for the county during the Ashes summer of 2005. Wallace was part of the Glamorgan dressing room then too. And saw at first hand, the impact that a player of that standing can have on entire team.
"Sourav was actually the captain of India at the time and some of the stories he told us were just brilliant," he says. "He told us he would always make the point of leaving Steve Waugh waiting at the toss when India played Australia.
"Waugh would be out there sweating wondering where the hell he was. Brilliant. The experience of these Indian players have is just bonkers. You can't fathom the kind of environment they have to inhabit – it's Premier League stuff, really.
"You can't help but learn from players like that. It's amazing when they do come over and pass some of that on."
Gill has made batting look ridiculously facile so far this summer, but his journey to the top has been far from easy.
The son of a farmer, Gill's father, Lakhwinder Singh, wasted little time in identifying that he had an extraordinary talent on his hands. He built a wicket on his farm and spent hours throwing balls at the future India skipper.
He even moved the family to Mohali to ensure that Gill had access to better training facilities. Legend has it, that Singh would offer incentives to local net bowlers to dismiss his son, to ensure that he was continually tested.
He may now be earning over £2m a year – a figure which look set to sky-rocket off the back of this extraordinary series – but Gill has never forgotten those humble roots.
'He was great, he really mucked in with the boys,' says Wallace. 'Like I said, he still maintains some relationships with some of the group, which is a sign of how well-liked he was.
'He lived close to the ground and spent most of his time at the club, to be honest. You got the sense that he was a superstar in the making, and he was obviously a confident boy but there wasn't a hint of arrogance about him. He just took a great deal of interest in everything that was going on.
'We were lucky to have him and I think he had a great time too. I'd be surprised if we ever got to sign him again!'