In only his second Test as India captain, Shubman Gill razed down a heap of records with his career-best Test score against England at Edgbaston on Thursday. The 25-year-old became the second youngest Indian skipper to hit a Test double century after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and also became the first Asian captain to smash a double hundred in SENA countries.
Gill recalled the technical adjustments he had to make to find success in the conditions after having had quiet runs on previous tours. India’s newly-marked No. 4 also admitted that he lost the enjoyment in batting during his middling run in red-ball cricket prior to the tour. Gill made a statement 147 in his first innings as captain last week in Headingley and became only the fourth Indian to record centuries in their first two Tests as captain.
“I mainly worked on my initial movement and my setup. Before this, I felt my batting was going well. I was scoring 30-35-40 runs consistently in Test matches. But at some point, I was missing that peak concentration time. A lot of people say that when you focus too much, you sometimes miss your peak time.
“So, in this series, I tried to go back to my basics. I tried to bat like I used to in my childhood. I didn’t think about having reached 35-40 runs or about playing long innings. I just wanted to enjoy my batting.”
“Sometimes, when you aren’t scoring runs fluently, you stop enjoying your batting. You focus too much on the need to score runs. I felt I had lost that in my batting. I was so focused that I wasn’t enjoying my batting as much,” he said.
Gill’s double century is also the first by an Indian in an away Test since Virat Kohli in 2016, with the Punjab batter also surpassing the former’s record for the highest score ever by an Indian Test captain.
“I worked on a few things before the series” 💪
Shubman Gill reacts to his innings of 269 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/Zh77BfoaQH
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 3, 2025
‘Not getting runs freely’
While he looked in immaculate control throughout, Gill said that it was difficult to score smoothly on the Birmingham flatbed.
“When I went in to bat before lunch on the first day, at tea I was on around 35-40 runs off about 100 balls. I came out and spoke to GG (Gautam Gambhir) Bhai. I told him, ‘I’m not getting runs freely, even though I have a lot of shots in my armoury.’ I also felt the ball was a bit soft,” Gill said.
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“In the last match, I was scoring more fluently, but here it wasn’t coming as easily. Still, my mindset was that if the wicket is good and I am set, no matter how long I bat, I shouldn’t leave the match halfway.
“In the last match, I learnt that no matter how long you’ve been batting, under these conditions, there can be a collapse in the lower order at any time. So I tried to stay out there as long as I could. I wanted the bowler to get me out with a good ball and I shouldn’t make mistakes. That was my approach,” he said.
After recording a massive 587, India’s highest total in England in 18 years on the back of Gill’s record-breaking score, the visitors reduced Ben Stokes’ men to 77 for three by stumps.
“I think once the ball gets a little old, it becomes difficult to take wickets. So, the more we consistently bowl in one area and frustrate their batsmen, the better it is for us. We will try to make them score in only one area. Because when a batsman is able to score all around the ground, it becomes difficult to control them… I think our bowlers executed their plans really well.
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“(The pitch) doesn’t have a lot for bowlers, but enough that if a batsman tries too hard, there are chances of getting out. When the batsman tries to do something different, the chances of getting him out increase.
“So, we will try to frustrate them while they bat, and wherever they try to score runs, we won’t give them that opportunity. I think that will be the most important thing for our bowling,” Gill remarked.
