Captaincy is mentally exhausting, more than physically: Shubman Gill

Business Standard

5 days ago

India captain Shubman Gill has had a trial by fire in his debut series as captain with all three Tests against England lasting five days but more than the physical fatigue, he feels tired mentally.
It has been a highly competitive series and the on-field tensions at Lord's have added to the intense rivalry. With India trailing 1-2 in the five-match rubber, Gill said he has enjoyed the leadership experience thoroughly but is hoping for more luck coming his way in the remaining two Tests.
"Honestly physically, I would say it has been less tiring, mentally more tiring, because when you are there, as a player, you are just thinking about, you are waiting for something to happen, the ball to come to you, whereas when you are the captain, you are thinking most of the time, so you are involved more mentally.
"I would say mentally it has been more tiring, physically it has actually been less tiring, than when you are actually the player," said Gill on Tuesday.
We need to close the sessions better India have allowed England to come back into the contest multiple times, most notably in the series opener at Leeds, and that needs to stop, said Gill on the eve of the fourth Test.
"Yes, definitely, I think the start of every series, even when we were in Australia, we spoke about how we can start and close the sessions with, and all the batsmen, all the players who are playing in the middle are aware of that, that we want to be able to close the session well, and at times we have done that well.
"However, we have seen there is a trend, even when we are bowling, we have seen at the start of a session, we would get some wickets, or there would be no wickets in the session, at the end of the session, we would get a wicket, and vice versa, even when we are batting, we would start the session very well.
"But when it is important to be able to finish a session, we would lose a wicket, which definitely brings the opponent team back into the game. It is something that we are aware," said Gill.
Gill expects pitch to be quicker than other venues The weather in Manchester has been damp through the week and rain is likely to hit play on majority of the days.
"Honestly, when I went to see the wicket yesterday, the wicket didn't look that bad, but obviously, now having to look at the weather (rain), I don't think there is much chance for the wicket to dry that much, so I think there would be a little bit more for the bowlers.
"And generally on this venue, it is a little bit quicker than the other venues we have seen, there is a bit more pace and bounce, so we will have to see how the Test match pans out," said Gill.
Meeting with Man U stars The Indian cricket team mingled with the stars of Manchester United football club at the latter's training facility in Carrington in Greater Manchester, and Gill said they enjoyed the experience.
"Yes, definitely we did all enjoy it, meeting top athletes from different sports is something that we all enjoy, you tend to see how different the sport is, but how similar the mindset is, and a lot of the players actually were big Man United fans, and it was great to be able to meet them, and share some insights on different sports, and yet have the same mindset.
"Some of them who were English, most of the players were not from England, they have heard about cricket, they have played the sport at some point, but they said they were really bad at the sport, so they didn't try it, but some of the English players had seen and played it in school," added Gill.