Although Shubman Gill's unprecedented start to his Test captaincy may have breathed new hope into Indian cricket, Sourav Ganguly believes the difficulties are just getting started. On Tuesday, when he turned 53, the former captain of India considered the young captain's outstanding performances and warned that the burden of leadership will only increase moving forward.

"This is the best I've seen him bat, and I'm not surprised," Ganguly remarked at Eden Gardens while addressing journalists during his birthday party. In his first series as captain, Gill has already amassed 585 runs at a remarkable average of 146.25, with three centuries, one of which being a double ton, over the course of the two tests thus far.

Gill achieved individual milestones in addition to India's convincing 336-run victory at Edgbaston, which tied the five-match series 1-1. He is currently just 18 runs short of surpassing Rahul Dravid's 602-run total from the 2002 England tour, which is the most runs scored by an Indian in a Test series in England, thanks to his 269 and 161 in Birmingham.

Nevertheless, despite Gill's outstanding performances, Ganguly cautioned that the road ahead would not be easy. "It's a honeymoon period since he just became captain. However, as time goes on, there will be more pressure. The pressure will rise throughout the following three tests, he predicted.

Don Bradman's 88-year-old record is now in sight due to Gill's remarkable performance. As captain, the Australian great amassed 810 runs in the 1936–37 Ashes. Gill has three more Tests to rewrite history, but he is currently 225 runs short of that mark.

Ganguly discusses talent in Indian cricket

Ganguly highlighted the cyclical strength of Indian cricket, even as the new generation has performed admirably in the absence of titans like Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma.

"Indian cricket has a lot of talent. There will be players in every generation, he stated. "Just see the abundance of talent after the great Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Tendulkar, Dravid, Kumble came and then Kohli, now Gill, Jaiswal, Akash Deep, Mukesh, Siraj..." They will come in and fill any gap in every generation. I've always maintained that.

Even though Ganguly led his team to a dominant victory in Birmingham, he warned that the series is still a long way from being over.

"The score is one-one." With three games remaining, there is still much to play for. India has played well and continues to do so. However, in the following game at Lord's, you must once more begin from scratch.

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