More than the statistics, it’s the tremendous talent, mental strength, and strong determination that have come to the fore and have added to Gill’s stature as a player
Shubman Gill. Pic/AP, PTI
Coming from the remote Punjab town of Fazilka and learning most of his cricket in Chandigarh, few would have expected Shubman Gill to touch such great heights as a batsman once given the added responsibility of Test captaincy at a young age.
There were doubts that the burden of captaincy might hamper his batting, but going by what the 25-year-old has achieved so far on his first assignment as skipper, it seems to have made no difference. Gill has flourished beyond expectation.
While scoring his first double century in Tests (269) on Thursday, he achieved a lot of milestones en route, simultaneously proving the sceptics wrong. Many felt that while leading a young, inexperienced team to England, he would flounder both as a batsman and a leader. But he has proved his class as a batsman and will probably show better results as captain too as the series progresses.
On the second day of the second Test at Edgbaston, Gill became only the third Indian cricketer after the legendary Sunil Gavaskar (221 at The Oval in 1979) and Rahul Dravid (217 also at The Oval in 2002) to score a Test double century in England. His innings of 269 is now the highest Test score by an Indian in England, and the seventh highest all-time Test score by an Indian. He has also become only the second Indian captain after Virat Kohli (200 vs West Indies at Antigua in 2016) to score a double century in an away Test. Incidentally, that was the last time an Indian had a double century in an overseas game. It has taken nine long years to finally break that drought.
Among Indian captains, only Kohli (7) has scored more than one double hundred. Others to have reached the 200-run mark once as captain include MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, and now Gill, who, of course, can add a few more as he has a long ahead of him.
More than the statistics, it’s the tremendous talent, mental strength, and strong determination that have come to the fore and have added to Gill’s stature as a player.
There is no doubt that after the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Gill has taken over the mantle of being the team’s batting mainstay without any pomp and show, but only based on his skills.
He was truly worthy of the standing ovation he received on departure from the full house at Edgbaston.
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Shubman Gill becomes first Asian captain to score a double hundred in SENA countries
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Sachin Tendulkar@sachin_rt
Very pleased to see the intent and commitment shown by @ShubmanGill and @imjadeja today. Well played!
Very pleased to see the intent and commitment shown by @ShubmanGill and @imjadeja today. Well played! pic.twitter.com/e1XK6NfFzG
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) July 3, 2025
Yuvraj Singh@YUVSTRONG12
@ShubmanGill! Making it look so easy on the big stage! Well played and well deserved double century an example of being unstoppable when the intent is clear
Take a bow @ShubmanGill! Making it look so easy on the big stage! Well played and well deserved double century 💯 an example of being unstoppable when the intent is clear 🔥 #IndVSEng pic.twitter.com/A1JXYVkzni
— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) July 3, 2025
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