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Former England cricketer Mark Butcher has heaped praise on India’s new Test captain Shubman Gill, highlighting his composure and technical finesse in filling the shoes of Indian great Virat Kohli at the crucial number four spot. Gill’s stellar form in the ongoing Test series against England has earned him 585 runs in four innings, and silencing doubts over his technique and temperament. “There aren’t many jobs in world sport that come with as much pressure and scrutiny as being Indian cricket captain, right? Not to mention you’re filling in Kohli’s spot in the order, or Tendulkar’s spot in the order,” Butcher told PTI. “So the pressures were enormous. And so far, he’s taken to it like a duck to water. He’s just looked very, very comfortable, very serene in terms of his temperament,” the 52-year-old added.

Speaking further on Gill’s performance, Butcher said, “And technically, he’s played beautifully as well. So what a great start to the series. I mean, he might have some records in his side by the end of it. He’s passed enough already. So what’s he got? 600 already in the series. It has been an incredible start.” He added that England need a plan for India’s middle order, especially Gill, stating, “England will have to come up with an answer for him… because they obviously feel, that you get past the top three or four…and then there are bounties to be had a bit further down the order.” Butcher also shared his admiration for KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, commending the former’s consistency and Jaiswal’s hunger for runs. “Every time I’ve seen KL play, so we go back to the 2021 series here in England, and he batted at the top of the order with Rohit,” he said. “So technically, he just looks very, very suited to top-order batting, really. And the fact that he’s now going to have a long run, hopefully, in that position, his average will go upwards of 40 very, very quickly because technically he’s fabulous. He’s a great player to watch.” Butcher described Jaiswal as a “generational talent” and spoke about his batting obsession, as relayed to him by Kumar Sangakkara. “Jaiswal just loves batting by the looks of it… he’s obsessed by batting and scoring runs. And he does it in a beautifully pleasing way. For somebody who’s so young and so relatively inexperienced to sort of look as comfortable at the top of the order in all these different conditions, is magnificent,” he said.

On India’s No. 3 spot, Butcher suggested the team should commit to a player. “You have to kind of make your choice and stick with it for a while because clearly, facing the new ball is difficult. People are going to get out for low scores. But you have to make your decision on who you think is the guy that’s going to fulfil that position.” Regarding Jaiswal’s potential short-ball vulnerability, Butcher remarked: “Yeah, possibly (he has a short ball weakness). It hasn’t cost him his wicket as yet. But it’ll be something that he’ll work on, I’m sure… I’m sure he’ll come up with an answer for it.”

He’s a young Italian tennis player, but not Jannik Sinner or Lorenzo Musetti.

He’s an up-and-coming On athlete, but not Ben Shelton or Joao Fonseca.

He could have been a famous footballer, but left the youth academy of Serie A club Roma as a teenager.

And he’s so softly spoken, that at times it’s impossible to hear him without leaning in close.

Flavio Cobolli, an understated but self-assured 23-year-old Italian, has flown under the radar during his fledgling tennis career. That is now much harder, because he just made his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, on the back of winning the biggest title of his career. Before the French Open, Cobolli beat former world No. 5 Andrey Rublev in straight sets to claim the Hamburg Open in Germany, an ATP 500 event, a couple of rungs below the Grand Slams. Cobolli saved all five of the break points he faced in the biggest match of his career.

Now he is in the last eight of Wimbledon, after beating former finalist Marin Čilić in four sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(3). He will have to get used to the attention — Cobolli said he felt “a little bit confused” during an interview at Roland Garros, as he explained the feeling of winning a big title and then heading straight to another one, trophy in hand.

“I like it,” he said of the attention before a first-round match against lucky loser and 2014 U.S. Open champion … Čilić. “It’s a little strange for me because I never had it.”

Clay is his preferred surface. In April, Cobolli won his first ATP Tour title on the surface at the Romanian Open. It was an unlikely win, coming off the back of an eight-match losing streak at the start of 2025. It was deflating after his breakthrough season in 2024, which saw his ranking rise from outside the world’s top 100 to the top 30. His latest title win also followed a disappointing couple of results: a first-round exit at the Italian Open and a quarterfinal defeat at a Challenger tournament in Turin.

But the Wimbledon grass has also proven a fine foil to his expressive brand of tennis. Čilić, who upset home hope and No. 4 seed Jack Draper in the second round, plays the first-strike, bludgeoning brand of the era in which he was a top player. Cobolli plays with more changes in rhythm and pace, moving the ball rather than blasting it.

Cobolli partly credits his progress to doing pre-season training in Spain with an old friend, Carlos Alcaraz. The two met over a decade ago on the junior circuit, where Cobolli once won a doubles match against the Spaniard. During an interview at the Laver Cup in September, Cobolli proudly referenced that junior victory, and said of their training block together at the Ferrero Tennis Academy in Alicante that he “learned a lot from Alcaraz and his lifestyle.”

They would have repeated the arrangement in the most recent off-season, but an injury to Cobolli got in the way. Still, Alcaraz has been impressed by what he’s seen from his near-contemporary. “He has the level to be there, really,” Alcaraz said during a news conference Monday in Paris.

“I’m just really, really happy with everything he’s doing lately. I’m pretty sure he’s gonna keep building his path and (will) become a really good tennis player.”

Alcaraz, who said Cobolli has “really good hands, really good touch,” empathizes with one of Cobolli’s weaknesses.

“What he was struggling (with) was about finding the right shots in the right moment. Probably he was a little bit inconsistent, like me sometimes,” he said with a smile.

Returning the compliment, Cobolli said: “He’s a nice guy, always joking, but when practicing he’s very focused.”

Six months before that training block, Cobolli drew Alcaraz in the first round of the 2023 French Open — his first main-draw match at a major.

“I said, ‘F—. Carlos on clay, first time main draw,’” Cobolli said of a match he ended up losing in straight sets, including a 25-minute bagel in the first. Cobolli said that “Carlos is a bit higher level” than anyone he’d faced, including Novak Djokovic.

It was at the 2024 Australian Open that Cobolli made his move, reaching the third round after entering as a qualifier. Sponsored by Lotto at the time, Cobolli formally joined On four months later.

The Swiss sportswear company’s roster also includes four-time Roland Garros champion Iga Świątek, top-10 American Shelton and Fonseca, who is considered the sport’s most exciting youngster. Joining has raised Cobolli’s profile, and with a game based more on style than power — he’s only 6 feet — his matches can catch fire. At last year’s French Open, he played out a barn-burner against Holger Rune, as their late-night, second-round match on Court 14 turned into one of the matches of the tournament. Cobolli was ultimately edged out in a final set tie-break that he had led 5-0, before Rune hit a slap-shot backhand return that changed the complexion of the match’s final minutes.

Cobolli has faced Alcaraz and Djokovic, the leading men on the ATP Tour, but not yet Sinner — a compatriot, a good friend and a fellow sporting polymath. Sinner’s background as a high-level skier is well known, but had Cobolli’s career headed in a different direction, he might be speaking as a footballer for Roma in Serie A.

He was a right-back in their academy for five years, but decided at 14 to pursue a career in tennis. His dad and coach, Stefano, was also a professional player, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 236.

Does Cobolli ever watch Roma and think he could be playing? “Of course — every match, I think it,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Every match, I think, ‘I can do better than him.’”

A number of his friends have gone on to play for the Roma first team, many of whom he plays padel with. Though born and raised in Florence, Roma is Cobolli’s biggest passion. He goes to games whenever he can and follows the team obsessively while on tour, generally preferring watching football to tennis. When he won the French Open boys’ doubles title as an 18-year-old in 2020, Cobolli celebrated by hoisting a Roma scarf into the sky. He hadn’t planned it; it just felt right in the moment.

His infatuation extends to one of his many tattoos. He has the Italian phrase “sei tu l’unica mia sposa, sei tu l’unico mio amor,” which translates as “you are my only wife, you are my only love,” inked on his chest. It’s a quote about Roma from club legend Daniele De Rossi, who wrote it on the captain’s armband when he was managing the team between January and September 2024. Cobolli describes De Rossi as his “idol outside the court.”

Another of Cobolli’s friends from his Roma days is Riccardo Calafiori, the swashbuckling defender who signed for Arsenal from Bologna last summer. “I texted him then just to say, ‘Congrats for your move.’ He’s a nice guy — just a normal guy,” Cobolli said.

“We played in the same team at Roma, and he was amazing with his feet. I’m a bit better with my hands.

“I did (always think he’d make it) — he’s a special player. And he will be a great, great, great player for Arsenal.” He saw Calafiori’s resilience up close in their youth, as his fellow Italian overcame a horrific knee injury to climb to football’s highest level.

Another of their team-mates was Edoardo Bove, whom Cobolli met aged seven and now plays for Fiorentina. They became great friends playing together at the Roma academy, and Bove was also a gifted tennis player. In December 2024, Bove collapsed on the pitch during a match against Inter and suffered a cardiac arrest. Cobolli was watching the game and broke down in tears.

“I froze immediately,” Cobolli told the ATP Tour in December. “When I watched that moment, I called my mom, crying, and she told me, ‘Flavio, stop there, I’ll come to you,’ because it was tough for me.

In Paris, Cobolli said that Bove had surprised him by showing up at the Hamburg final. “He’s good, he’s happy, and I hope to see him on the pitch soon,” Cobolli said.

He still enjoys playing football tennis with some of his peers on the ATP Tour, including other talented footballers Alcaraz and Sebastian Korda, who he cites as one of the best in the locker room. Korda is close to footballing royalty, too — his girlfriend Ivana is the daughter of Pavel Nedvěd, the former Ballon d’Or winner.

Cobolli treasures these friendships from his Roma days, but ultimately chose tennis over football because, as well as his greater talent with a racket, he prefers the responsibility of an individual sport.

“I don’t like to play with a team,” he said. “I like to play alone. I love to stay alone in my life. I don’t like to lose because of someone else. I want to win because of me. In a team, it’s different.”

Still, as he roared in delight after beating Čilić on No. 2 Court, it was the emotions of his team, some in tears, that stood out. He’ll be trying to win alone again Wednesday, in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.

(Top photos: Adam Davy / PA Images via Imagn Images)