Shubman Gill may have scored just 11 runs in the second innings of the fifth Test, after scoring 21 in the first, which may not be noteworthy numbers but they have brought to an end a stunning series with the bat. Gill has ended the series with a tally of 754 runs, which is the second highest tally of all time for an Indian in any Test series, only behind Sunil Gavaskar’s 774 against the mighty West Indies in a five-Test series in 1971.
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Gavaskar had played only four matches in that series, having made his debut only in the second Test. Gill, meanwhile, has achieved this feat on his debut as India’s Test captain. He is also just the third Indian to score more than 700 runs in a single series after Gavaskar and his teammate Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had scored 712 runs in a five-Test series at home against England in 2023/24.
Gill’s tally is also the second highest for a captain in any Test series, only 56 runs behind the record of 810 held by the legendary Don Bradman, who had scored that against England at home in the 1936/37 Ashes. Conversely, it is the highest score by any Indian captain in a Test series by a margin of of 22 runs – Gavaskar held the record previous for the 732 he scored in the six-Test series against the West Indies in 1978/79.
Gill fell in the first innings of the first Test after going for a single that was never there. In the second innings, Gill fell off the very first ball of the second session, being trapped in front of his stumps by an inswinger from Gus Atkinson.
The only Tests in which Gill failed to score centuries in this series were both in London – the third Test at Lord’s and the fifth Test at the Oval. Gill started the series by scoring a century on his captaincy debut. He scored 147 in his very first innings as the skipper, followed by a score of eight in the second innings. Gill then made merry in the second Test, scoring a record 269 in the first innings and 161 in the second as he powered India to a 336-run win at Edgbaston.
He then could only manage scores of 16 and six in the third Test and 12 in the first innings of the fourth before grinding out 103 runs off 238 balls as part of a match-saving effort with KL Rahul. Rahul and Gill batted out nearly 70 overs after which unbeaten centuries by Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar helped India draw the match. This was followed by the 21 and 11 he scored at the Oval.
