Gill's First Frame

Why Test Cricket, Like Cinema, Belongs to the One Who Directs It!

So here’s the thing - Test Cricket according to me is a Captain’s medium much like how Cinema is a Director’s medium.

It is the format where the skipper shapes the game, where choices taken on the ground echo across 5 days, and where the personality of the captains imprints itself on each session. Take Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds - the settings, the dialogues, the rouge characters, the way he just rewrites history on his own terms. Each frame screams that it is his film; and contrast it with 2001 Eden Miracle, where Sourav Ganguly’s defiance and strategic boldness - like backing Harbhajan Singh as lead spinner, letting VVS open in the second innings, and setting a target for Aussies to chase - set the stage for one of the greatest turnarounds/win in cricket history.

The Eden Miracle

In both these cases, the act is inseparable from the mind that shaped it.

There have been better thinkers of the game, there have have better timers of the cricket ball, there have been batters with spectacular defence, there have been mean pacers who could bowl snorters, there have been magicians who could bowl you between your legs and many more - yet in the Test Format of the game, it almost always boils down to the Captain.

You usually don’t remember a series win with individual performances, say the batter who got a hundred at the Adelaide or a bowler who picked up a six-for at the Perth rather who led the team. When the team doesn’t play as a unit - it is the captain whose neck is on the line, if the team chickens out while chasing 150-odd on a 5th Day pitch in the subcontinent - it is the captain who gets most of the blame, if you aren’t able to make the most of the green top on Day 1 in SENA the commentators are quite unkind to the skipper.

Now what I have written above needs explanation, let me try to do that. Also I am going to take the liberty to talk in cricket terms and intersperse with film terms.

Before we get there, think of these names; Mike Brearly, Clive Lloyd, Allan Border, MAK Pataudi, Nasser Hussain and Martin Crowe(each of these names scream to write an article about them). All of these names are the ornaments of the game we love the most. Not necessarily because of their stats - not for the most hundreds, not for the best averages, not even for iconic fourth-innings chases - but because of how they led. They’re the auteurs of Test cricket - who kind of shaped the longer format of the game akin epics of the Mahabharat and Illiad. These names crop up whenever we talk about the game.

You will also notice that I’m staying away from names like MS Dhoni, Misbah-ul-Haq, Ricky Ponting, Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli, Graeme Smith, Brendon McCullum, and Pat Cummins - not because they don’t belong in this conversation, but because I’ve watched them on screen, lived those moments in real time. I don’t want to bring recency bias in this piece.

Coming back, of late in cricket with advertising dollars and TV coverage, every player has to earn a place in the squad with either runs behind his back or richness in the wickets’ column. Selection for even captains is driven by stats. The case was not the same always - the captain was always gauged on how well he led the team. How well he mixed his bowling options. How diligently he set up a batter, when or when not did he enforce the follow on, how or why did he choose to bat first to name a few. The small decisions between the deliveries, overs and sessions - that’s where the captaincy lived.

To drive this point home, I will pose two questions in front of you.

1. Do you remember the number of runs scored by Saurabh Ganguly in the BGT 2001 which featured the famous Eden Gardens win?

   

2. Do you remember any batting exploits of Michael Vaughan from the famous 2-1 Ashes win in 2005?

   

I am pretty sure, you don’t. Because I don’t. And that is the whole point.

But both of these events are highlights of the two captains who led their countries with pride, jigra and chutzpah. What we do remember is that they led with heart, grit, and belief. Ganguly and Vaughan didn’t just captain teams - they directed blockbusters.

Now, Indian Cricket is walking into a new dawn. With Rohit retiring and Kohli calling it a day¹, the complexion of the dressing room has changed. Shubman Gill has been named captain for the upcoming tour of England. Only time will tell if it is the most prudent selection - but it is hereby my job to support the decision taken by Agarkar and co.

In the last few weeks, there was a lot of chatter in the cricketing world - who will get to captain India. A few names were thrown in the hat; KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Jasprit Bumrah, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant. Let us go to each of these names one by one.

1. KL Rahul - He has come very far from being trolled endlessly - even I was one of them. At 31, he seemed like a great fit. He has led the team in away tests in SA. Has excellent away record. As was evident from his choices in IPL 2025 - he didn’t want the job tbh.

2. Ravindra Jadeja - He could have made a great in-transition captain. At 36, he is fitter than ever and is kind of the senior most player in the squad. Also with Ashwin retiring, Jadeja is the most undroppable player in any Test XI in the world - playing in whatever condition. He would’ve made a superb transition captain - solid for the next 20–25 Tests - with Gill as his deputy. But the Indian cricket top brass, didn’t want to do that - they wanted to invest in new blood.

3. Ajinkya Rahane - He was my top choice. Has a few years of top-flight cricket left in him, I like his stoic and dignified style of leading the team. MCG 2021 is a signature of sorts of his captaincy style. If it was not for him, Indian team couldn’t have recovered from 36 all out² to script a famous series win Down Under.³ He could have been much like the selection of Anil Kumble as the captain after Rahul Dravid for the India tour of Australia 2008 - more remembered for Harbhajan Singh and Sydney Test. But in a world possessed and obsessed with the next big thing, Rahane wasn’t trendy enough.
   

   The Adelaide Debacle

4. Jasprit Bumrah - Arguably the best choice, if it was an ideal world where injuries and workload were a thing of the past in sports. There are great examples of fast bowlers making brilliant leaders - Patty Cummins, Imran Khan, Wasim but they are all less prone to injury. He has the X-factor, the brains and the poise to be a solid leader - but he also has a long list of appointments in the hospital. Gotta feel for Bumrah.

5. Shubman Gill - He is the India captain now. But what I am concerned about is all the backlash which he might get from the press if he doesn’t perform with the bat when touring away, especially in the upcoming seaming overcast decks of England. I hope he has a thick skin and can take whatever comes towards him. GG guy, will have to be very very patient with Gill or else he will even hamper the brilliant batter we have in Gill. IMO - the captaincy in the longer run was always to come to either Gill or Pant - they could have waited. Now that the decision has been taken, I wish him the best.

   

6. Rishabh Pant - I have talked multiple times on how I like the skin and stomach on this kid. He might be a great captain a few years from now but riding a dismal IPL season as a batter - his confidence in white ball is not where it usually is in the red ball game. Again the vice-captaincy is his, from behind the stumps his job is more nuanced than it earlier was, where most of the advice was handy in the slip cordon. Now the only person/maybe two to seek advice in the Indian XI is Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul.

And that’s the thing about Test cricket - it’s not just a format, it is a movie being shot over 5-days. A place where the captain isn’t just making bowling changes and field placements - he’s setting tone, pulling the strings, shaping narrative, and mood. Much like a film director deciding when the camera goes wide, when the music transitions or how the frame holds silence. Whether it is Ganguly’s Eden miracle or Vaughan’s Ashes in 2005, these aren’t just results - they are movies.

With Gill, we’re now entering a different epoch. He’s young, untested as a leader, and still finding his voice. But so was MAK Pataudi at 21. So was Kohli in Adelaide 2014. Captains aren’t born in white ball games, they aren’t shaped in the powerplays, they aren’t respected in press conferences but they’re revealed in five-day plots, slow burns, fading lights and the red ball 60-overs old and the game slipping.

If Test cricket truly is a captain’s medium, then what we’re witnessing is the start of Shubman Gill’s directorial debut.

Gill, what’s your Reservoir Dogs like?

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