‘It's going to be a huge job for him’ - Jos Buttler on Shubman Gill’s role as new Test captain of India

‌Former England white-ball skipper Jos Buttler was impressed with Shubman Gill’s captaincy when he played for Gujarat Titans under the latter during the Indian Premier League 2025 season. Buttler felt that the newly-appointed captain of the Indian Test team has shades of both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma which will keep him in good stead during his challenging tour of England, his first as skipper.

With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announcing their retirement before the Indian team for the England series was named, Gill will have his task cut out, both as a batter and skipper, during the marquee series. The Indian team is already in England and will start their five-match duel at Headingley in Leeds on June 20. 

"He's a really impressive player and an impressive young man," Buttler said on ‘For the Love of Cricket’, his new podcast with Stuart Broad. "He's pretty calm and measured when he speaks, but [it's] interesting, I feel like on the field he's got a bit of fight about him; a bit of intensity, quite passionate. I think he'll be a mix of Kohli and Rohit.

"Kohli that sort of real aggressive , really transformed the Indian team, in your face, up for the contest,” he said. “Rohit a bit on the other side, a bit more laid back, very cool, calm, collected customer, but with that sort of fight. I feel like, from my time knowing Shubman so far, he'll be a bit in the middle. He's obviously learned from those two guys… but he'll be very much his own man."

Shubman Gill has been captain of Gujarat Titans for two seasons in the IPL with the batter scoring 426 runs, including a century and two fifties, from 12 matches at an average of 38.72 and a strike rate of 147.40 in his debut season as skipper. In the current season, he had an excellent run with the bat scoring 650 runs at an average of 50.00 and a strike rate of 155.87 which has shown that captaincy has not burdened his primary skill. 

Incidentally, Buttler also highlighted his discussions with the young batter on separating batting from captaincy to maximise the benefits from both facets. With both the former captains now away from the red-ball game, Gill will have the senior duo of KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah, who have both been to England in the past, to rely on during testing times, apart from his deputy Rishabh Pant.

"He talked about compartmentalising batting and captaining; so when he's batting he just wants to be a batter, and then he will try and work on his captaincy and try and separate the two roles," Butler explained. "When you're doing such a big job as being captain of the Indian cricket team, he'll have to try and do that well and have some good people supporting him.”

Buttler also acknowledged the high-pressure nature of being the captain of the Indian cricket team where every action will be put under the microscope but hoped that the young batter would live up to the expectations in his new role. He also highlighted that Gill will have the additional pressure of stepping into the number four slot in the batting lineup in Tests, which has been owned by the legendary duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli in the past.

"I don't think we can quite understand the level of interest and the stardom that these guys have. You see it around the IPL, you're aware of it, but actually living that yourself… I think they say the Indian Test captain is like the third or fourth-most influential person in India, behind the Prime Minister etc. - so you really are put up on that pedestal.

"It's going to be a huge job for him. He's obviously captained two seasons of IPL cricket, which is a big, pressurised job and he's sort of the prince. Kohli is the king, Shubman is the prince: that's the narrative that they spin out there, and I feel that he's the coming man… Stepping into that No. 4, it's big shoes, isn't it? Coming behind Virat, and Sachin Tendulkar before that as well. That's obviously a huge role."