'No Virat Kohli, no Rohit Sharma and he looked like gold': Sourav Ganguly wants Shubman Gill as 'captain of everything'

Sourav Ganguly defended Shubman Gill, asserting he should lead all formats due to his talent. He criticized the quick shift from celebration to doubt.

Sourav Ganguly didn’t just defend Shubman Gill at Eden Gardens; he basically issued a character certificate. Sitting in the stands, someone asked him if Gill should be India’s T20I captain. Ganguly’s reply was pure Dada: he said Gill “should be captain of everything because he’s so good”, before reminding them that barely three months ago, the same Gill was in England, "looking like gold” with the bat and as captain, leading a young side without Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma. In three months, he pointed out, people have already moved from celebration to doubt.

Shubman Gill, in September. (REUTERS)

The gap between what Gill has done and how quickly the narrative has flipped is the real heart of Ganguly’s little rant. The setting - Bandhan Bank’s The Captain’s Calm podcast - might have been about cool heads, but the former India captain was already irked by how impatient the ecosystem has become with its new leaders.

“Captain of everything” is really a plea for patience

Speaking on the podcast, Sourav Ganguly stitched the line into a larger point about mistakes and patience.

He said: “The other day I was sitting at Eden Gardens, and somebody came and told me, ‘You think Shubman Gill should be captain of T20I?’ I said, ‘He should be captain of everything because he’s so good.’ And I asked him that three months ago, that fellow was in England, and he looked like gold - batting, captaincy, got a young team to fight, no Kohli, no Rohit Sharma. And in three months’ time, you’re asking questions. That’s the mindset of people. And it happens to someone who makes decisions all the time...you have to be patient, you have to allow somebody to become better.”

He is not just flattering a young batter; he is attacking the churn around him. The image he paints is simple: one quarter of the year, Gill is “gold” in England as a young leader; a quarter later, the same system is searching for flaws. In that contrast lives Ganguly’s broader warning - that if captains are judged in three-month cycles, no one will be allowed to grow into the job.

Everything around that quote ties back to the way he says he tried to lead India: pick people to succeed, not to fail, and live with their bad days as the price of their good ones. The former Indian captain makes the point that one cannot keep asking questions of a leader every few weeks and then expect calm, confident decisions in return.