Manoj Tiwary questions Shubman Gill’s aggressive captaincy style at Lord’s

Former Indian batter Manoj Tiwary questioned Shubman Gill for adopting an ultra-aggressive approach as a leader while captaining in the third Test match against England at Lord’s. Gill was involved in animated chats with the on-field umpires and was involved in an altercation with England openers – Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett – at the fag end of the third day’s play.

Tiwary highlighted that Gill has looked to copy Virat Kohli since he has become a captain, which is not natural to him. The former Bengal cricketer noted that this is impacting Gill’s batting. The Indian captain returned with scores of 16 and 6 in the previous Test after amassing 585 runs in the first two Test matches.

Manoj Tiwary said on SportsBoom, “I don’t like the way captain Gill is going about things. I think he is trying to copy what Virat did last time. And as a result, it is not helping his batting. Ever since he became a captain in the IPL, I have noticed that he is getting into an aggressive mindset, and having animated chats with umpires. It was unlike Gill. He doesn’t need to show that kind of aggression, and doesn’t have to prove anything.”

“He can stick to his style of being aggressive. It doesn’t mean that you have to always give it back verbally. Aggression can also be shown by winning Test matches. India could have easily led the series 2-1. Such aggression is not good for the game, especially from the captain of the Indian cricket team.”

Tiwary said he was not happy with the language that was used by Gill when he was involved in a heated argument with England’s openers.

“I am not happy with the language and words that are coming in the audio when they are near the stumps. You are representing the Indian cricket team. I think this has become a trend, as previous captains have probably used such words to express their anger, but this needs to be controlled. If you use slang, the next generation will pick it up,” said Tiwary.

The fourth Test match between England and India will be played at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester, from July 23 onwards.