India skipper Shubman Gill scored his 9th test century of his career in the final day of the 4th Test between India and England at Manchester on Sunday. This was his 4th century in the series and he became just the third captain after Sir Donald Bradman and Sunil Gavaskar to score 4 tons in a series.
Gill got to the century in 228 deliveries in an innings studded with 12 fours. KL Rahul had given him apt support but missed out on his own ton after he was sent back for 90 runs.
Gill and Rahul have been the top run scorers in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Before the start of Day 5, Gill was on top of the charts with 697 runs from eight innings. This is also Gill’s first series as the India captain. Rahul, meanwhile, had scored 508 runs as of Saturday, which is also the first time he has scored over 500 runs in a series.
After having their back to the wall for most of the fourth Test at Manchester, captain Gill and the veteran Rahul gave a masterclass in batting resilience on Saturday, the fourth day of the Test. It came at a crucial stage: India were reduced to 0/2 (that’s two wickets for zero runs) in the first over of their second innings itself, after Chris Woakes dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan in successive deliveries. At stumps on the fourth day of the Test, India were 174/2 having played out 62 overs without further incident. Rahul was batting on 87 while Gill was on 78.
Thanks to the duo, India came into the final day of the Test trailing by just 137 runs, having started the innings with a mountain to climb after England scored 669 runs in their first innings in response to India’s first innings total of 358.
Shubman and Rahul took different paths: the India captain started scoring briskly at first, but then slowed down in the final session of the day. Gill had a strike rate of 67 before tea and a strike rate of 29 after tea.
If, thanks to the batting masterclass from Gill and Rahul, India manage to save the Old Trafford Test, the fate of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy will rest on the Oval Test, which is the final Test of the five-match series. Currently, England lead the Test series 2-1.
