Nasser Hussain: Shubman Gill's Captaincy Lacks Kohli, Sharma's Aura; India Needs All-Rounder Fix

Former England captain Nasser Hussain has offered his analysis of India's recent Test match defeat against England, echoing sentiments shared by Ravi Shastri regarding Shubman Gill's captaincy and the team's ongoing need for a seam-bowling all-rounder. Hussain contrasted Gill's leadership approach with that of his predecessors, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, while also raising concerns about India's slip catching and lower-order batting collapses, which contributed to England's five-wicket victory.

Gill's debut as captain in the Leeds Test followed Rohit Sharma's retirement. England successfully chased down a target of 371 runs, marking their second-highest successful chase at home against India.

[Image of Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill. Rishabh Pant (L) and Shubman Gill (R) are the vice-captain and captains of the Indian Test team. (Getty Images)]

Rishabh Pant (left) and Shubman Gill (right) in their roles as vice-captain and captain, respectively.

Hussain observed that Gill's captaincy appeared to be in its nascent stages, lacking the commanding presence associated with Kohli and Sharma.

"I thought I saw someone just finding his way, honestly," Hussain stated. "You've got to be very careful in the first Test match, the people he's taken over from, Kohli, and then Rohit Sharma. I thought he didn't quite have that on-field aura as the names I mentioned there."

He further elaborated on the perceived differences in leadership styles: "You look down on those two previous names, and you immediately see who was in charge of India. I looked down from the press box, the commentary position, there were a lot of captains; it was a bit captaincy by committee, which can happen in your early days as a leader because you still senior players like Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul want to try and help you out as much as possible. I thought he followed the ball a lot. I thought he was reactive as opposed to proactive."

Hussain expressed surprise that neither Gill nor other senior players intervened to adjust Ravindra Jadeja's bowling strategy on Day 5, when the spinner failed to exploit the rough patches on the pitch effectively.

"A word with Jadeja, maybe as a young captain, to go to such an experienced spinner, and go, you do know the rough is out there," Hussain remarked. "Ravi Shastri and Mark Butcher are up there, going, show us where that ball is pitching, and it was pitching nowhere near the rough. Ravi was saying, a bit slow, a bit wide, bowl in the rough. I was surprised that not one of the senior players or captains went to Jadeja and said, Can we go a little bit wider. But Ravi's right, they lost the game for two things that he couldn't control (catches dropped and batting collapse)."

Hussain also addressed India's persistent search for a seam-bowling all-rounder, drawing comparisons to past players who filled that role effectively.

"The slip cordon and the catching were poor, something that India have done well in the last two or three years and the collapses. And that concerns me because India has a lower order with spin bowling all-rounders and has had for the last decade, which are magnificent. Ashwin, Jadeja, Axar Patel. In England, they are still looking, I think, for that seam bowling all-rounder, you know, someone like a Hardik Pandya, going back to Ravi's times, Kapil Dev or whatever, they are still looking for that lower-order bowler who can bat. And if they keep going for, what, seven for 41 and six for 30 or whatever, then this could be a quick series. They need to run down the order."

The team's experiments with Nitish Reddy in Australia and Shardul Thakur in Leeds have yet to yield the desired balance in the lower order, as evidenced by the batting collapses in both innings, despite the team managing to score five centuries during the match.