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Ricky Ponting strongly supports India’s choice of Shubman Gill as Test captain over Jasprit Bumrah.
Ricky Ponting comes out in strong support of Shubman Gill. (PC: PTI, AP)
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has backed India’s decision to pick Shubman Gill as the men’s Test captain ahead of premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah. He said that, unlike several pundits who can’t make sense of the move to appoint a newbie 25-year-old, the idea was ‘pretty simple’ for him — Bumrah couldn’t be the captain when his injury troubles don’t guarantee him game time in every match.
Bumrah was India’s vice-captain and stood in for the now-retired Rohit Sharma twice during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, his body broke down under the excessive workload in the final game and he was ruled out for the next three months of cricketing action due to a stress injury. As doubts over his fitness to complete long tours arose, Gill impressed with the Gujarat Titans in the IPL, helping them finish third.
“I actually think it’s the right move,” Ponting told The ICC Review. “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 I think it’s the right decision. 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,” he added.
Ponting was impressed with Gill’s stint at the Titans, where although the team faltered in the business end, the right-hander led from the front, scoring 650 runs at a strike-rate of over 155.
“Even just looking back at the way he’s handled this current GT 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.”
The five-Test series begins on June 20 in Headingley.
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