 "India captain Shubman Gill and his deputy Rishabh Pant currently are the top-two run-scorers in the ongoing tour of England. Reuters")
There was a big question mark on what India’s batting lineup in Test cricket would look like and how they would perform without Virat Kohli after the former captain and batting superstar abruptly retired from the format in May.
Shubman Gill’s red-hot form in the ongoing tour of England, however, has helped ease some of those concerns, with the newly-appointed Test skipper and Kohli’s successor at the No 4 spot having smashed nearly 600 runs so far in the series.
Lloyd heaps praise on Gill and Pant after heroics at Headingley and Edgbaston
Former England all-rounder David Lloyd, for one, feels India couldn’t have asked for a better transition as far as India’s premier Test batter is concerned and made a similar comparison between Pant and legendary wicketkeeper-captain MS Dhoni.
“People say world-class players are irreplaceable, but are they? This is a real case of ‘The King is dead, long live the King.’ Shubman Gill has taken over seamlessly from one of the greatest modern batsmen in Virat Kohli and in style too,” Lloyd wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
“Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant is always box office and has taken India to the next level after MS Dhoni. High praise indeed, for both,” he added.
Both Gill and Pant have been outstanding in the two Tests that have taken place so far in the series, with the second match entering its final day on Sunday. Gill has racked up 585 runs at an average touching 150 (146.25) – including 269 and 161 in the second Test at Edgbaston – in his first series since he succeeded Rohit Sharma as Test captain.
Pant, appointed Gill’s deputy in the format during the squad announcement in May, sits at the second spot on the run-scorer’s list with 342 runs at an average of 85.50. That includes twin centuries in the first Test at Headingley that took his career tally of Test tons to 8 – two more than Dhoni, making him the Indian wicketkeeper with most Test centuries.