Nasser Hussain has slammed Shubman Gill’s first game as Test captain in the opener game of India’s tour of England 2025.

Speaking to the media, Nasser Hussain shared his impressions of the star batter and his performance as the captain of the side. He went on to say that Shubman Gill was trying to find his way as captain and didn’t have the kind of on-field aura that his predecessors like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma possessed.

“I thought I saw someone just finding his way, honestly. You’ve got to be very careful in the first Test match, the people he’s (Gill) taken over from, Kohli, and then Rohit Sharma.”

“I thought he didn’t quite have that on-field aura as the names I mentioned there. You look down on those two previous names, and you immediately see who was in charge of India,” said Nasser Hussain.

Nasser Hussain felt that senior players like Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul chipping in with advice on the field, trying to help the new captain. He said that Gill’s style of captaincy was reactive and not proactive.

“I looked down from the press box, the commentary position, there were a lot of captains; it was a bit captaincy by committee, which can happen in your early days as a leader because you’re still senior players like Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul want to try and help you out as much as possible. I thought he followed the ball a lot. I thought he was reactive as opposed to proactive,” he said.

Hussain also pointed out how Shubman Gill have had a discussion with Ravindra Jadeja on exploiting the rough on the surface, which was something that his fellow commentators Ravi Shastri and Mark Butcher suggested when on air.

“A word with Jadeja, maybe as a young captain, to go to such an experienced spinner, and go, you do know the rough is out there. Ravi Shastri and Mark Butcher are up there, going, show us where that ball is pitching, and it was pitching nowhere near the rough.”

“Ravi was saying, a bit slow, a bit wide, bowl in the rough. I was surprised that not one of the senior players or captains went to Jadeja and said, ‘Can we go a little bit wider?’ But Ravi’s right, they lost the game for two things that he couldn’t control,” concluded Nasser Hussain.