Shubman Gill’s press conferences have been quite entertaining. The newly-appointed India captain didn’t hesitate to troll an English reporter who had questioned his team’s ability to beat England at Edgbaston. After Gill’s side did the unthinkable at the venue where they had never won before, Gill’s funny avatar was witnessed in the press conference by everyone. Even former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has enjoyed Gill’s press conference, which aren’t ‘coached’ like they are to many other players across the globe.
“Shubman has a natural flair. I was watching his press conference, and I immediately found that he is not putting on a show. He is talking like who he is. He is leading the team according to his natural self and skills,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin also pointed out how overseas media tries to get under the opponent captain’s skin by targeting them in press conferences. But, the manner in which Gill has handled media and himself, has impressed Ashwin.
“In overseas tours, the media tries to target the captain because if you bring the captain down, it becomes easy to bring the team down. You can get them to fall like nine pins if you go after the captain,” he added.
“Don’t take it out of context, but a lot of players are coached about what to say and what to do. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Shubman Gill. He looks like a man who is doing what he believes in.”
In the Edgbaston Test, Gill smashed 269 and 161 in the game — becoming only the second player in history to score more than 150 in both innings of a Test — as India thrashed England by 336 runs to level the five-match series 1-1. This was also his first win as Test captain.
The 24-year-old, who was ranked 23rd before the series, then jumped 15 places to a career-best No.6 in the world, as per the latest ICC Test batters’ rankings released on Wednesday.
His match haul of 430 runs took his tally in the series to 585 with three Tests still to play.
Gill’s previous career-best rank was 14th, which he had achieved in September 2023.