Shubman Gill earned himself a place in the pantheon of Indian batting heavyweights with a near flawless, record-breaking double hundred, giving his team complete control of the second Test against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Thursday.
Gill’s monumental 269 off 387 balls in his debut series as Test captain allowed India to post a massive 587 all out before the inexperienced Indian pace attack delivered upfront to dismantle England top-order to reduce the hosts to 77 for three at stumps on day two.
Joe Root (18 batting off 37) and Harry Brook (30 batting off 53) settled the nerves in the England dressing room after the hosts lost three wickets for 25 runs.
While England bowlers got no help from the surface, the Indians found swing and seam.
Playing his first game of the series, Akash Deep struck twice in as many balls to cap off a perfect day for his team before Mohammed Siraj made it even better by having Zak Crawley caught at first slip.
Akash got the ball to seam away on both the occasions, resulting in dismissals of the dangerous Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope in his second over.
Pope’s was a rather loose shot as he tried to play the moving ball towards mid-wicket. In Duckett’s case, Gill was also a major contributor, taking a sharp catch at third slip.
But the day was truly ruled by Gill, who collected 30 fours and three sixes on way to a record shattering double ton, making him the highest individual scorer for India in England ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid.
He also became the first Asian captain to amass a double hundred on these shores.
For someone who had expressed his desire to be the best batter of the series, he is well on course to meet his target.
In a matter of three innings in England, the 25-year-old has managed to improve his average to 40 from mid 30s at the start of the series.
At the break, England had run out of ideas to stop Gill, who forged a 144-run alliance with Washington Sundar (42 off 103) to prop up India to 564 for seven.
Beyond the numbers, what makes Gill’s feat remarkable is that the high profile series is his first as Test captain.
He has also made the number four his own following the retirement of Virat Kohli. Having hardly put a foot wrong with the bat, Gill also ensured that India did not cede the advantage to England from a strong position like they had done in Leeds in the series opener.
With England short ball ploy not working and Shoaib Bashir being taken to the cleaners by Gill, England brought part timers Brook and Root in a desperate attempt to fetch wickets.
The skipper collected five boundaries off Brook while Washington Sundar (42) held his ground at the other hand.
The left-hander, who has played ahead of Kuldeep Yadav, was peppered by some short stuff from Josh Tongue before deciding to take the bait and pulling him over fine leg.
Gill was stuck on 199 for a while but the moment finally arrived when Gill pulled Tongue for a single towards fine leg.
His celebrations showed how much the effort meant to him as the opposition and the England fans duly applauded the special knock.
Though he could not fetch a possible 300, getting jettisoned by Tongue soon after tea.
In the morning session, England pacers were not able extract much from the surface as Gill and Ravindra Jadeja (89 off 137) made the most of the ideal batting conditions with a 203-run stand off 279 balls.
India added 109 runs to the total in 25 overs after resuming the day at 310 for five.
England had resorted to the short ball plan against Gill and Jadeja but that did not work the major part of the morning session.
Tongue finally got the much-needed breakthrough late in the session with a short ball that Jadeja could not control to be caught by wicket-keeper Jamie Smith.
Amid bright sunshine at Edgbaston, Jadeja resumed his innings with a crisp backfoot punch through the cover and a cut off Stokes.
Gill got his first boundary of the day in third man region before cover driving Chris Woakes.
It was surprising to see Gill play the reverse sweep off spinner Bashir.
Later in the session, Gill also swept Bashir for a six behind square. Jadeja too got into the act and stepped out to smash Bashir for a maximum over mid on.
Ben Stokes set an interesting field when Sundar joined Gill in the middle, employing a leg slip and two close in fielders on the leg-side.
