7 July 2025 : It took less than a fortnight for Nasser Hussain to backtrack on his earlier comparison between Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli. The former England captain was stunned as the 25-year-old led India to a historic first-ever Test win in Birmingham on Sunday. India thrashed England by 336 runs—marking their biggest overseas Test victory—to level the five-match series 1-1.
When India lost in Leeds last month, Nasser criticised Gill’s captaincy, saying it lacked Virat Kohli’s aura. The veteran pointed out that Gill never looked like the leader on the field amid constant input from teammates KL Rahul, vice-captain Rishabh Pant, and the dugout.
“I thought I saw someone just finding his way, honestly. You’ve got to be very careful in the first Test match, the people he’s taken over from, Kohli, and then Rohit Sharma. I thought he didn’t quite have that on-field aura as the names I mentioned there,” he had told Sky Sports after India’s five-wicket loss at Headingley, where Gill made his debut as the Test captain.
However, on Sunday, after India’s remarkable turnaround at Edgbaston, Nasser was all praise for Gill. Admitting he is unlikely to be a “Kohli-type character” on the field, the former England batter feels Gill’s “calm and composed” demeanour best suits India at the moment.
“I do think that was important. I do think he was more visible. It’s very easy when you lose, you sort of blame the captain and say, Oh, he went missing. And when you win, you go, oh, he’s a great captain. But I do think just watching from up above, which we often do in a commentary box, at the Headingly game, there was a lot of input from a lot of people, and it was like, who’s in charge? You look down today, and there was a, he was in charge, and the camera often went in him, and he was moving fielders around. He still needs help from Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul or whatever, but he looked in charge.
“He’s always going to be calm and composed. You just listened to that interview. He’s got a very low heartbeat. So he’s not going to be a Kohli-type character. He’s got a low heartbeat, but that can help. Look at this crowd here today. Look at all of India watching on. You may need someone just to calm the team,” he told Sky Sports.
‘Unthinkable’ Akash Deep masterstroke stuns Nasser
One of the captaincy calls that amazed Nasser came on Day 5 of the match, when Akash Deep was asked to change his end despite having snared two wickets with the new ball from the other end the previous evening.
Nasser felt it was an unlikely move that no other captain would have thought of, but Gill took that tactical call and India reaped the benefits after Akash single-handedly ran through the England batting line-up, finishing with six wickets.
“He did some subtle things that we wouldn’t do. Akash Deep bowled beautifully this end. This morning we thought he was going to start this end. He started him up at the end, and it worked. So there were tactical things that he did in the game as well that really worked,” he said.
Nasser concluded saying that Gill also did the most important job in the match, which was scoring “shed loads of runs.” The captain scored 430 runs – 259 and 161 respectively – in the match , the most scored by a captain in a single Test.
“The most important thing is to get runs. That’s his number one job, and he’s got a shed load of runs.”
Summary:
After criticizing Gill’s “reactive” leadership and lacking Virat Kohli–like aura following the Leeds Test, Nasser Hussain reversed stance post-Edgbaston, praising tactical insight like the Akash Deep bowling shift