Shubman Gill, Kolkata Knight Riders’ young batsman, is keen to learn leadership traits from the two great leaders Brendon McCullum and Eoin Morgan. Former KKR player and ex-New Zealand captain McCullum is the newly appointed head coach of the KKR team while England captain Eoin Morgan will play the maiden IPL season for the franchise.
Shubman Gill, who made the debut for Team India in 2019, is seen as the future of Indian cricket. He has given several top-notch performances at the domestic level. The Punjab-born cricketer was also the part of India U-19 World Cup-winning team in 2018.
For the upcoming IPL season, he has aimed to learn about the captaincy from Morgan and McCullum. Both are the two successful captains of their nation. Morga led England to their maiden World Cup triumph in 2019 while McCullum with his prolific captaincy guided New Zealand to the 2015 World Cup grand-finale.
“The mindset that Eoin Morgan and McCullum possess is something that’s really unique. If you look at Brendon, the way he captained New Zealand in the 2015 World Cup was really fantastic to see. And how he goes about planning things is what I want to pick up,” Shubman Gill said while speaking to ESPNCricinfo.
Shubman Gill opines the trait a captain should have:
Shubman Gill opined that the important trait for leadership is to have calmness. He also added that the captain should also have his nose ahead of his rival to be successful.
“Calmness [is an important leadership trait] and to be able to see the match from different angles [is another]. Just not from a single point of view, but to see how the opposite team is viewing the match is also one of the key traits.”
Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik led KKR will play their first match of the IPL 2020 against Mumbai Indians on 23 September.