It is this drive that has seen Gill make five hundreds since he was appointed captain ahead of the England series, averaging a staggering 78.83 in the last five months. The last of those five hundreds came against West Indies at home but the sense of anticipation has only started to rise now that India prepare for South Africa and New Zealand without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the first time since 2011. The buck shouldn’t stop entirely with Gill, at least in the first year of his captaincy, but it was evident that he wouldn’t stop trying.

Probably it was that bent of mind that took Gill to the net where India bowling coach Morne Morkel was unsurprisingly keeping the ball just outside the off stump.

A few leaves, a few misses, a few firm blocks followed by a couple of drives, Gill was entirely human in all of it but also determined to put himself through the grind. Gill is also a run scorer. At any position, in any situation, trust Gill to mine ways to score. That trait has crystallised into a more concrete shape we have witnessed in the last five months, making Gill arguably India’s most significant generational figure in this transition phase. Yet it can’t be ignored how the clickbait of all-format cricket threatens to eat into his endurance.

In the span of five months, Gill has featured in two Test tours at home and in England, the Asia Cup in the UAE and the white ball tour of Australia, playing seven Tests, three ODIs and 12 T20Is overall in conditions ranging from extremely hot to sub temperate. Leave aside performance, the acclimatisation alone can be daunting for anyone, especially when you are constantly switching formats.

“Look, it’s tough, it’s actually tough because switching formats, I think for me, more than from the support staff’s point of view, it is tough on the players as well,” said India head coach Gautam Gambhir in an interview on bcci.tv. “The guys who are playing all three formats, we’ve got to be very, I think not clear, but I think we need to be very smart in how we use them, because there should not be a burnout as well,” he said.

“For example, someone like Kuldeep (Yadav), (Jasprit) Bumrah or Shubman, Washi (Washington Sundar), Axar (Patel), all these guys are playing all three formats. So we need to be very smart in how much we want to use them and when we want to give them a break as well, because switching formats for players is very, very tough,” said Gambhir.

“Imagine in four days’ time, we’ll have a Test match starting at 9 o’clock in the morning. Imagine batting first and from Australia in four days, we would be facing someone like a (Kagiso) Rabada or a Marco Jansen. So for me, I think it’s tough on the players, but this is what professional sportsmen are all about, whereas now it is our responsibility when we want to get them off that pressure,” Gambhir said.

Gambhir’s analysis, while logical, might not apply to Gill because India can’t afford frequent leadership changes to cater to workload management. It was the sole reason Bumrah was never considered for long-term captaincy even though he had led in the 2020-21 England tour. It’s tough on Gill, and probably explains his lean run during the ODI tour of Australia, scoring just 43 in three outings. Yet it can’t be missed how he turned a corner in the T20I series before again gearing back for Tests against South Africa.

Maybe this is the grind that Gambhir was alluding to while talking about ‘pushing Gill in the deep sea’. “When he was appointed as Test captain for the England series, we had pushed him in the deep sea. He came out as a proper professional swimmer,” said Gambhir.

Gill would agree as well. This is the job he wakes up to every morning. This is why he must go the extra yard every time India take the field.