India head coach Gautam Gambhir has praised Shubman Gill and the entire team for their thrilling victory over England at The Oval, which helped India draw the five-Test series 2-2. Making his debut as Test captain, Gill delivered an outstanding performance, scoring 754 runs on the tour the second-highest by an Indian batter in a Test series.
“I think Gill has done a fabulous job, that’s all I can say and he will keep doing well for Indian cricket,” Gambhir said upon returning from England on August 5.
Gambhir was seen leading the coaching staff’s celebrations after Mohammed Siraj dismissed Gus Atkinson, sealing the dramatic win. The head coach emphasized that every player deserves credit for their efforts over the last two months.
“We are really happy. I think the boys deserve every bit of it because the way they fought since the last two months in all the five Test matches. They deserve all the plaudits,” he stated.
Gambhir’s focus now shifts to the upcoming T20 Asia Cup 2025, which begins on September 9 in the UAE. India will not play any preparatory series before the tournament, as the Bangladesh tour has been postponed. Meanwhile, T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav has resumed training after recovering from sports hernia surgery. There is speculation around whether Siraj will make a return to the T20I setup. He hasn’t featured in limited-overs cricket for India since the Sri Lanka tour last year and was not included in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 squad. While Gill finished as the leading run-scorer, Siraj ended the series with the most wickets 23 in total. However, Gambhir pointed out that several players delivered key performances throughout the series.
“Look he (Siraj) has been really brilliant, not only him the entire team has performed brilliantly and it is really difficult for me to mention one name. These guys have, be it Shubman, be it Siraj, Jaddu, Washi, Jaiswal, I can stand here and talk for the next 20 mins about the individual performances. I think the boys have been brilliant in the last two months,” said the former opener.
In IPL 2025, Siraj picked up 16 wickets from 15 matches for the Shubman Gill-led Gujarat Titans, with an average of 32.93 and an economy rate of 9.24.