"A mix of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma" - GT star on Shubman Gill’s captaincy ahead of ENG vs IND 2025 Tests

England batting mainstay Jos Buttler has said that he sees Shubman Gill having captaincy traits of both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. The 34-year-old said that Gill's captaincy style could be in between the former's aggressive, in-your-face type leadership and the latter's laconic style of captaining the side.

Buttler also said he liked the way Gill had spoken about separating the batter and the captain within him. The Englishman played with the 25-year-old for the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025, where they bowed out after losing the eliminator clash to the Mumbai Indians.

Buttler told former England pacer Stuart Broad on the "For The Love Of Cricket" podcast:

"Pretty calm and measured when he speaks but interesting, on the field I think he has got a bit of fight, bit of intensity. I think he'll be a mix of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. I think Kohli sort of aggressive, really transformed the Indian team, in- -your-face, up for the contest. Rohit, on the other side, a bit more laidback, cool, calm, and collected customer but with that sort of fight."

"I feel like from my time of knowing Shubman Gill, he'll be a bit in the middle. I think he's obviously learned from those two guys, been around those two guys a bit, but he'll be very much his own man. What I liked about something he talked about as well is he talked about compartmentalising batting and captaining."

"So when he is 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 which I think when you are doing such a big role being the captain of the Indian cricket team is he'll have to try and do that well enough and have some good people supporting him."

"He's obviously captained two seasons of IPL cricket which is a big pressurised job. Kohli is the king, Shubman Gill is the prince. That's the sort of narrative they spin out there."

---

Jos Buttler calls Rishabh Pant a box office cricketer, says he would turn the TV on to watch someone like him bat in Test cricket

In the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, India will have some new faces on the upcoming tour of England. Jos Buttler said that, along with Shubman Gill, the likes of Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah are the other big stars to watch out for in the series:

"Naturally Shubman Gill becoming the captain. I think three or four is probably where he will bat. Stepping into that number four is big shoes, isn't it? Coming behind Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. So that is obviously a huge role. But I think there is the sort of players that I look at would be the captain Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, who I think is a fantastic Test match cricketer, box office cricketer."

"He's the kind of guy I'll turn on the TV when he's out there in the middle. There's usually batters in India who are sort of star names, but I don't think there is a bigger star in that touring squad than Jasprit Bumrah," he said.