A positive win in a Test match after losing the first in the series for any new skipper in cricket, and especially at a place where the team did not win any Test over a long time, is the only thing that matters the most. After getting a lot of trolls for the voice, records in SENA countries, and captaincy, many questions were raised by the experts on Shubman Gill. In the second test at Edgbaston, India made three key changes to their playing XI: they rested Jasprit Bumrah, didn't pick Kuldeep Yadav, and went with two batting all-rounders after they were in the backfront in the series by 1-0. But after five days of game at Edgbaston, a place where India never won, they registered their iconic win, leveling the series in the five-match test series.
The pick that impressed the most in XI was Akash Deep, who turned out to be a key player in the crucial situations for India, but the others failed to impress. In the absence of Bumrah, Akash Deep took a 10-wicket haul in the match.
In the Edgbaston Test, Indian skipper Shubman Gill stated that he too would have opted to bowl first, just like the opposition captain, Ben Stokes. But no matter what the toss result was, the game's result was in India's favor; the captain smashed 269 runs in the first innings.
Former England cricketer Mark Butcher stated that the Edgbaston test would turn out to be Shubman Gill's last test, as the decision taken during the toss was wrong. This statement came from him after former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri stated that England would not get any advantage from their decision to field.
He said,
"England would get away with this decision of batting first, but if it were Shubman Gill, who said India would have bowled, it would not have gotten away if England had reached 600. Might have been his last Test as captain."
The Indian skipper, too, played a crucial role in the win of the Edgbaston test with his iconic knocks in both innings. He became the first cricketer to hit a double century and a 150 in the same Test. In the first innings he scored 269 runs and 161 in the second innings.
After the iconic win at Edgbaston, Butcher was all praise for Gill. He said,
"So the pressures were enormous. And so far, he's taken to it like a duck to water. He's just looked very, very comfortable, very serene in terms of his temperament."
"And technically, he's played beautifully as well. So what a great start to the series. I mean, he might have some records on his side by the end of it. He's passed enough already. So what's he got? He has already achieved 600 points in the series. It has been an incredible start."
"And England will have to come up with an answer for him in that middle order, because they obviously feel that you get past the top three or four... and then there are bounties to be had a bit further down the order."