India captain Shubman Gill admitted that juggling responsibilities across all three formats remains a work in progress, especially as he negotiates a busy calendar and increasing leadership responsibilities. Gill currently leads India in Tests and ODIs and was recently promoted to vice-captain in T20Is, making him one of the busiest cricketers in the national set-up.
Gill went from celebrating a successful Test tour of England to facing scrutiny over his white ball in a short space of time. He will now play a Test match against South Africa in Kolkata within five days of returning from a white-ball tour of Australiaa turn that had become routine for him.
“I’m still trying to figure out how to manage it. I think the workload, starting with the Asia Cup, we’ve been playing kind of back-to-back, traveling to different countries, switching between formats in four to five days,” Gill said.
“So I’m also trying to figure out what gives me the best chance to play and succeed in all the formats I’m going to play. But the challenge is definitely more mental than physical,” he added.
PUJARA BACK GILLS
Gill’s quick switch between formats remains a key talking point and former India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara believes mental adaptability will be the most significant challenge in his early journey as an all-format player.
“Someone like Shubman, who is still a young player, doesn’t really have a lot of physical burden. But mentally it can be tough,” JioStar pundit Pujara said while answering a query from India Today during the Media Day ahead of the first Test.
“Recently he was in Australia and he was leading the Indian one-day team, then he was playing T20s and now suddenly he has to go from white-ball cricket to red-ball cricket, not in Australia but in India, where the conditions are completely different.
“His biggest challenge will be adapting to different formats as quickly as possible. In Test cricket, you need temperament, patience and you also need to change your game plan according to the format and to do that very quickly is always challenging for any top player.”
Pujara backed Gill to handle both the captaincy and the demands of constant format changes, pointing to India’s recent strong Test results in England and the West Indies.
“But someone like him, who is young, maturing quickly and already leading the team well, he will certainly respond positively. The recent form of the Indian Test team will also help him; they did exceptionally well in the West Indies and before that in England.”
“It will give Shubman confidence as captain. And they are playing South Africa who recently won the World Test Championship and stayed on top. It will be a competitive series and I am sure Shubman is looking forward to the challenge,” he added.
India take on South Africa in the first Test in Kolkata on Friday and Gill is gearing up for another test of his adaptability and leadership.
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Issued by:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
November 13, 2025
