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Australia great Ricky Ponting has come out strongly in defence of Shubman Gill who recently took over as India’s new Test captain. The latter is on the cusp of his first leadership assignment – a tricky trip to England comprising of five Tests. Gill’s elevation to captaincy has caused divided reactions with the pundits mentioning Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant as better candidates for the role.

Speaking on the ICC Review, Ponting backed Gill to come good and also said that the captaincy choice from BCCI didn’t really come as a surprise.

“I actually think it’s the right move,” Ponting said.

“I know there’s a lot of other people out there, pundits out there saying they can’t understand why it wasn’t Bumrah and why they have gone to Shubman, but I think it’s pretty simple.

“Bumrah’s injuries are holding him back a bit in the last couple of years and you don’t want that with a captain. You can’t have a captain coming in and missing games here and there, so I think it’s the right decision.”

“I know there’s a lot of other people out there, pundits out there saying they can’t understand why it wasn’t Bumrah and why they have gone to Shubman, but I think it’s pretty simple. “Bumrah’s injuries are holding him back a bit in the last couple of years and you don’t want that with a captain. You can’t have a captain coming in and missing games here and there, so I think it’s the right decision.”

To be fair to his critics, Gill is yet to establish his credentials fully in the longest format, averaging a lukewarm 35.05 from a reasonable sample size of 32 matches. There have been glimpses of his immense potential but Gill’s inability to consistently deliver in red-ball cricket is what has been the major talking point after his elevation to captaincy. However, Gill has had a fairly successful stint as captain of his IPL franchise Gujarat Titans. After a disappointing first season in 2024 where they crashed out in the league stage, Gill led the 2022 champions to a playoff berth in their 2025 campaign.

During his brief stint as IPL captain, Gill has also shown signs that captaincy hasn’t affected his batting methods. The right-hander tallied 650 runs in IPL 2025, fourth on the run-getters list at an impressive strike rate of 155. Gill had a reasonable campaign in 2024 too, aggregating 426 runs at a strike rate of 147. While the formats of T20 and Test cricket are as different as chalk and cheese, certain basics of leadership remain constant. Ponting, known for his sharp cricketing instincts, gave a green light to Gill’s captaincy credentials but felt that India needed to be patient with their new captain.

“Now that they’ve made it, it’s one they’ve got to stick with and give him a good crack at it for, for a long period of time.

“Even just looking back at the way he’s handled this current GT (Gujarat Titans) team through this IPL, I think leadership sits really well with him. “And the important thing for me with leadership as well as if you’re a batter and you’re a captain, you have to be scoring runs. And Shubman is doing that in IPL and I think the timing is right and I think you’ll have a good captain who’ll make a lot of Test runs going forward.”

Gill’s goal of cracking the code as a Test batter could do with a change in his batting position. Prior to the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Gill found himself mostly batting in the top-three. Opening the batting and being a no.3 are the most challenging tasks in Test cricket, more so over the last five years with batting getting tougher due to tougher surfaces and potent bowling attacks. With India set for a transition, the captaincy privilege should allow Gill to pick his spot and Ponting reckons that the no.4 spot would be ideal.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul gave a good account of themselves as the opening pair in Australia but circumstances could force the think tank to separate the pair. Sai Sudharsan and Abhimanyu Easwaran are the other options that India have at the top of the order. Rahul could find himself batting at the important no.3 slot with Gill likely to bat a spot lower. All this is conjecture as India have just under two weeks to finalise their batting order before the Test series. Ponting, though, shared what he thought could be the batting order for India.

“I think (Sai) Sudarshan and (Yashasvi) Jaiswal will open the batting (in England) as Sudarshan just looks like a class player to me and technically I think he could do well at Test level,” Ponting said.

“They’ll have two pretty young opening batters, so they might look to go for someone that’s got a bit more experience at No.3. Whether that’s KL (Rahul) or Karun (Nair) at No.3, and then Shubman might end up being that No.4 player, which will probably make life for him a little bit easier as a captain as well. “Not having to be opening or batting at No.3 as a young captain might make it easier. “Their top five will probably be Sudarshan, Jaiswal, KL, Gill and Karun Nair for the start of the England series.”

The five-match Test series kicks off on June 20 in Leeds followed by matches at Birmingham, Lord’s, Manchester and The Oval.