Overview
- In an interview with ANI on December 29, the former England spinner called Shubman Gill complacent, citing “lazy shots” and saying the burden of captaining all formats would be too much right now.
- He contrasted Gill with Virat Kohli, arguing Gill lacks the sustained intensity and aggression Kohli shows across formats.
- Panesar framed his critique against India’s recent Test results, pointing to consecutive whitewashes: 3-0 against New Zealand and 2-0 against South Africa.
- He described head coach Gautam Gambhir as currently stronger in white-ball coaching and urged him to tap Ranji Trophy expertise to rebuild the red-ball side.
- He said a wide Ranji-to-Test gap and players’ focus on IPL contracts leave India’s cricketers underprepared for Test cricket, and he reported no quick fix.