Hayden backs Shubman Gill to meet Test challenge, says India has ‘job to do’ before WTC final

Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden said he backed India captain Shubman Gill to handle the demands of Test cricket and warned that India “has a job to do” ahead of the World Test Championship final, speaking to ANI ahead of the first Test between Australia and Bangladesh in Darwin.

Hayden, speaking in Darwin, acknowledged India’s uneven form in the current WTC cycle while expressing confidence in Gill’s leadership. He described Gill as “a wonderful young man and a good leader” and said India must address its Test match performance even as the side remains strong in limited-overs formats.

India sit fifth in the World Test Championship 2025-27 standings, having won four, lost four and drawn one of nine matches in the cycle, a record Hayden cited when emphasising the format’s challenges. “And when you look at things like the World Test Championship, where the relevance of Test match cricket is prioritised because of the point system, you see that India in spite of being a great team, has a winning percentage of less than 50%. You know, they’ve played nine games in this World Test Championship (WTC) calendar, and they’ve lost four and won four, and they’ve had one draw,” he said.

On India’s balance across formats, Hayden pointed to the team’s comparative strength in white-ball cricket while noting work remains in the longer form. “And I feel India are in a much better position to continue their winning ways in the short formats, 50-over in particular, and T20 cricket, and they do have some work to do as most nations do in and around their Test and longer formats,” he told ANI.

Hayden expressed belief Gill can meet the Test challenge and described the captain’s support network within the squad. “So I’m sure Shubman Gill will be up to that challenge. He’s a wonderful young man and a good leader, and he’s got a good team around him, albeit a team that’s going to need to perform some younger players and some more experienced players. But they’ve got a job to do ahead of the World Test Championship final, which is in June next year,” he said.

Having worked alongside Gill during the 2026 Indian Premier League, Hayden referenced his own experience as Gujarat Titans’ batting coach when Gill captained the franchise to the final. Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Gujarat Titans to retain the IPL title, a result Hayden observed from close quarters.

Hayden placed the current Indian group in the context of cricketers across eras while praising the emerging talent. “I think that good cricketers are good cricketers. It doesn’t matter whether you’re comparing the times of the Bradman era, the times of Sachin Tendulkar, the Sourav Ganguly era. The full member nation teams are always full of very good cricketers,” he said, adding: “What we’re seeing now in Indian cricket is a fantastic young group of players who have much to prove across all formats of the game.”

Hayden, who is co-owner and head coach of Glasgow Cosmic in the inaugural European T20 Premier League, also reflected on the role of shorter formats and the IPL in shaping modern cricket. “And largely the success of the IPL has been borne, as I mentioned before, on the success of the shorter formats of the game,” he said, while expressing that India’s young group has the quality to remain a force in limited-overs cricket even as the Test side aims to improve.

India’s immediate objective in the WTC cycle remains to secure sufficient results over the remainder of the calendar to qualify for the final scheduled for June next year.