The narrative arc of Shubman Gill was pre-scripted even before he faced the first ball in international cricket. He was the chosen one the moment he made heads turn in the age-group circuit; the best player in a victorious Under-19 World Cup, the inheritor of the country’s batting heritage and a future leader. His career, ignited on the farms of his father in the border village of Chak Kherewala in Punjab’s Fazilka district, has largely stuck to the plot, and on Saturday, he completed another natural rung. He became the captain of his country’s Test team, in both tricky and testing circumstances. He was an idealistic rather than pragmatic choice, a shot at the future rather than one of immediate gain. With the departure of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, India were left with a group of cricketers drifting into the horizon, or those that were too callow, or good leaders but uncertain team-members. The circumstances are somewhat similar, though not exact, to the times Kohli assumed the throne, a leadership vacuum as …