Shubman Gill, long Indian cricket’s “Prince” in waiting, has been entrusted with leading a new era after the Test retirements of greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.The 25-year-old Gill was identified in 2020 as a batting successor to Kohli after impressing on his Test debut in Melbourne, where he opened and made 45 and an unbeaten 35 as India beat Australia by eight wickets.Gifted with a wide variety of shots at the top of the order, it has been Gill’s inspiring leadership of Gujarat Titans that clinched his elevation to the Test captaincy to succeed Rohit.Gill played a captain’s knock of 93 this week to secure a place in the playoffs for Gujarat, who were IPL champions in their 2022 debut season.”I have talked about this a couple of times, when I’m batting, I want to play and think as a batsman, not as a captain. At the back end last season I learnt that,” said Gill, who is in his second season leading Gujarat.Gill, who has scored 636 runs at an average of 57.81 to lie second on the IPL batting charts, has led from the front and been dubbed “Prince” by pundits in the cricket-obsessed country.”Let Shubman Gill remain Shubman Gill instead of calling him a ‘Prince’,” said former India wicketkeeper and Gujarat assistant coach Parthiv Patel.”You gave him this name from the commentary box. He is leading from the front and makes his presence felt in the dressing room. “He doesn’t talk much, but his words carry a lot of weight.”Rohit and batting great Kohli’s departures paved the way for Gill to lead a young India squad for five Tests in England beginning on June 20.Other candidates included Jasprit Bumrah, who was Rohit’s deputy in Australia this year, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul.- Competitive instinct -Gill got the nod but he has big boots to fill.Rohit won 12 of his 24 Tests as skipper and his predecessor Kohli was India’s most successful Test captain with 40 wins from 68 matches in charge.Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar had already identified Gill’s leadership credentials and competitive instinct ahead of his appointment, and he urged fans to give him time.”It would take a couple of years to get to the level of our ‘super captains’,” said Gavaskar.”All of them brought something unique to the table.”When you look at Gill, Iyer, and Pant… you can see a mix of different qualities. “Gill seems the most competitive. When there’s a close call, he’s quick to question the umpire. He’s very involved in the game.”In 2023, Gill scored a Twenty20 hundred to become the fifth Indian batsman — including Kohli and Rohit — to record centuries across all three formats.Gill, who hails from a family of farmers in the northern state of Punjab, said he owed much of his success to his father.”I think the way I practise and the way my dad made me practise… 90 percent of the credit should go to him because it was his vision,” said Gill.Gill has played 32 Tests, scoring 1,893 runs at an average of 35.05 with five hundreds. But there are question marks over his record outside India. In his 13 overseas Tests, Gill’s average is only 29.50.

Bangladesh’s interim leader, who took over after a mass uprising last year, will meet powerful parties pressuring his government later on Saturday, days after he reportedly threatened to quit.Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the caretaker government as its chief adviser until elections are held, has called for rival political parties jostling for power to give him their full support.His press secretary Shafiqul Alam confirmed Yunus would meet leaders of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as well as leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Muslim-majority nation’s largest Islamist party.”He is meeting BNP and Jamaat leaders this evening,” Alam told AFP.No agenda for the talks has been released.But the BNP, seen as the front-runners in elections, are pushing heavily for polls to be held by December. They would be the first elections since a student-led revolt forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee in August 2024.Microfinance pioneer Yunus, who has led the country after returning from exile at the behest of protesters, says he has a duty to implement democratic reforms before elections.Yunus has said polls could be held as early as December, but that holding them later — with a deadline of June — would give more time for those changes.- ‘Reconsider our support’ -The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since Hasina fled, but this week has seen an escalation with rival parties protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing demands.”Our senior members will be there for the talks,” said BNP media official Shairul Kabir Khan.Jamaat-e-Islami’s media spokesperson Ataur Rahman Sarkar also confirmed that they were invited.On Thursday, a political ally and sources in his office said Yunus had threatened to resign if Bangladesh’s parties and factions did not back him.That came a day after BNP supporters held large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time demanding an election date.”If he is unable to announce a specific election date by December, we will reconsider our support for his administration,” senior BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed said in an interview on a private TV channel broadcast on Friday.According to local media and military sources, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman this week also said that elections should be held by December — aligning with BNP demands.Bangladesh has a long history of military coups, and the army retains a powerful role in the country.- ‘Trying to assume power’ -Jamaat-e-Islami loyalists have also protested against the government, demanding the abolition of a women’s commission seeking equality.Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party — made up of many of the students who spearheaded the uprising against Hasina — said his party meanwhile wanted later elections to give time for change.The students wanted “fundamental reforms” to Bangladesh’s system of governance, Islam, an ally of Yunus, told reporters on Friday, according to the Prothom Alo newspaper.But he said rival parties considered the overthrow of Hasina to be “regime change and are trying to assume power” under the existing constitution.”There are efforts to create an unstable situation in the country,” Islam added. “We must remain united and not fall into the trap.”Hasina, 77, remains in self-imposed exile in India.She has defied an arrest warrant to face trial for crimes against humanity related to last year’s police crackdown on protesters during which at least 1,400 were killed.