There were all kinds of questions swirling around Shubman Gill’s Test career in the early months of the year, which led to a few raised eyebrows when he was made India captain after Rohit Sharma’s retirement. However, Gill blew away those doubts and then some with a record-breaking performance with the bat in his very first Test series at the helm in England. He also proved a worthy candidate for captaincy as India 2-2 in a series that has widely been rated as one of the best of the century.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri, under whom Gill had made his international debut, has now said that the 25-year-old will be among the flagbearers for the next generation of great India batters. “No question, Shubman Gill he’ll be around for a long, long time because we’ve seen what kind of series he’s had here. I think he’s only 25 years of age, and as you know, with this exposure, he’ll get even better,” Shastri said on Sky Sports.
“He’s right up there. He’ll be up there. He’s composed. He’s very regal. He’s got that, you know, when you look at him, he’s something regal about him. The way he bats, he’s very easy on the eye, very fluent and has the ability to play the long innings,” he added.
The records Gill notched up
Gill scored a whopping 754 runs in the five-match Test series in England. He fell for scores of 21 and 11 in fifth Test, which resulted in him missing out on Sunil Gavaskar’s record for most runs by an Indian in a Test series by about 20. He also became just the third Indian to score over 700 runs in a series after Gavaskar and his teammate Yashasvi Jaiswal.
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’s series for the ages in England
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.
