Is Shubman Gill's Captaincy Actually Working Out?

Let's set the scene. In mid-2025, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both retired from Test cricket within weeks of each other. Suddenly, India needed a new captain — and the job went to 25-year-old Shubman Gill, who had never captained a Test side before. His first assignment? A five-Test tour of England. No warm-up, no easing in. Straight into the deep end.

So, more than a year later, has it worked out? Short answer: partly. The results are respectable, but the picture is far less convincing than some headlines suggest — and that's where the debate begins.

Here's the record, plain and simple

• England, mid-2025 (away): Series ended 2-2. Gill was outstanding with the bat — 754 runs, arguably India's best batter across the series — but India allowed the fourth Test to slip away before somehow winning the finale to level things up.
• West Indies, October 2025 (home): Won 2-0. Nothing spectacular here — India was the better side, and the result reflected it.
• South Africa, Nov-Dec 2025 (home): Lost 0-2. This is the result that gets conveniently pushed aside when people discuss Gill's successful start. India losing a home Test series is unusual. Losing a home Test series doesn't happen to India often. Losing this one happened under Gill. That's not a footnote — it's the biggest challenge to the "new era" narrative.
• Sri Lanka, August 2026 (away): Won the series 1-0. India dominated Galle — winning by 165 runs, in what was also India's 600th Test — but Sri Lanka's Sonal Dinusha then batted for two straight days in Colombo to deny India the sweep. Young spinner Manav Suthar took 10 wickets in Galle, while Devdutt Padikkal was named Player of the Series.

Add it up: one draw, one comfortable home win, one home series defeat, one away series victory. That's not exactly "captain leads team to glory." It's a mixed record — and that's reasonable for someone only 14 months into one of the toughest jobs in Indian cricket.

What Sri Lanka actually tells us

Forget the final score for a moment. The more important story from that tour is Manav Suthar. A 10-wicket haul in a Test is not something you dismiss as luck or a fluke — and Gill himself said afterward that he wants to keep building around Suthar going forward. That matters. It suggests Gill is not merely managing the side he inherited; he's beginning to shape a team around players he trusts.

Padikkal winning Player of the Series strengthens that argument — this wasn't simply "India beat a weaker side." India also discovered players who could matter later.

There's another important point here. Winning away from home is never something to dismiss, particularly for a team still adjusting to a post-Rohit, post-Kohli Test era. Gill needed results, but he also needed signs that India's next generation could carry responsibility. Sri Lanka provided some of those signs.

What South Africa actually tells us

Let's not sugarcoat this one either. Losing 0-2 at home, seven months into the job, is a real problem. You cannot erase it because India won a routine series before it or an away series afterward.

If we're genuinely assessing whether Gill's captaincy is "working," South Africa must carry more weight than the West Indies series that preceded it. Beating a weaker opponent at home is expected; losing a home series to a strong opponent demands explanation.

That's where Gill's captaincy still has questions around it. When India dominates, the team looks convincing. But when the opposition creates pressure, the margin for error becomes much smaller. The next stage of Gill's leadership will be about finding answers in those moments — not simply ensuring India win the matches they're already expected to win.

The England series was the first warning

England was a fascinating introduction to Gill's captaincy because it showed both sides of the story almost immediately.

With 754 runs, Gill established himself as the centre of India's batting in his first Test series as captain. That's enormous responsibility for a 25-year-old replacing two of the biggest names in modern Indian cricket.

But India's 2-2 draw also exposed how little room there was for mistakes. The fourth Test slipped away, leaving India needing a result in the final match just to avoid losing the series.

They responded and levelled it.

That recovery deserves credit. But so does the earlier failure to close out the series.

And that may be the simplest way to describe Gill's captaincy so far: good enough to recover, but not yet consistent enough to dominate.

What's coming next — and why it actually matters more than Sri Lanka did

New Zealand, away, November 2026 (two Tests — Wellington from November 19, Christchurch from November 27): This one carry baggage. New Zealand walked into India in late 2024 and won a Test series 3-0 on Indian soil — something that had never happened before in India's Test history. That wasn't on Gill's watch, but many of the players who were part of that collapse are still part of the team he's leading now. Going to New Zealand and getting a good result would do a lot to put that memory to rest. Losing there again, even away from home where it is more excusable, will bring every bit of that comparison straight back.

Expect this to be a genuine grind rather than a batting festival. New Zealand conditions reward patient, disciplined cricket, and India's bowling attack — with Suthar now firmly in the picture after Sri Lanka — will need to do a lot of the heavy lifting on pitches that may not offer much to spin.

Australia, home, from January 2027 (Border-Gavaskar Trophy): This is the big one. A home series against Australia is always the marquee fixture on India's calendar, and it will be the first time Gill leads India against Australia in Tests since taking over the job. It also lands right in the middle of the WTC 2025-27 cycle, so it's not just about pride — it could directly decide whether India even gets near a WTC final.

Expect Gill to lean on spin-friendly home conditions, as Indian captains traditionally do against Australia, and expect the scrutiny on his tactical calls to be significantly higher than anything he's faced so far. Bat-first or bowl-first decisions, field settings for Australia's top order, bowling rotations and handling pressure situations will all be examined.

Put simply: Sri Lanka was a good response to a bad South Africa series. New Zealand and Australia are where we actually find out if this captaincy has staying power.

Gameonfield's Stump Mic

Shubman Gill's captaincy is working — but it hasn't earned a clean bill of health yet.

The biggest positive is that Gill appears willing to build rather than simply preserve. Suthar's emergence, Padikkal's impact and India's ability to win away from home suggest there is a plan beyond the immediate result.

But the South Africa series remains the red flag. Great captains are ultimately judged not by how comfortably they win the series they're expected to win, but by how they respond when the pressure is genuinely on.

Gill has shown promise. He has shown resilience. What he hasn't shown yet is sustained dominance.

And that's the test waiting for him now.

So don't ask whether Gill has failed or succeeded just yet. Ask the more important question: when the next big series arrives, can he turn India's potential into consistency?

For now, the jury is still out — and perhaps that's exactly where it should be after 14 months.

What do you think — is Shubman Gill already proving himself as India's long-term Test captain, or does he still have something to prove? Tell us where you stand.

Because in Test cricket, reputations aren't built in one series — they're forged when the pressure refuses to go away.