Young Indian sensation Shubman Gill achieved a significant milestone on Friday, matching a legendary 47-year-old record held by cricketing icon Sunil Gavaskar. This occurred on Day 2 of the first Test match against West Indies, played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Gill, demonstrating superb form, reached his eighth Test fifty, which also marked his first as India’s captain on home soil. He was dismissed shortly after this impressive feat.
Prior to Gill, the last Indian captain to score a fifty-plus score in their debut home innings as skipper was Sunil Gavaskar himself. He had achieved a monumental 205 runs against West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium way back in 1978.
The crucial 98-run third-wicket partnership between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill was eventually broken by West Indies captain Roston Chase. Gill’s dismissal came after he attempted an innovative reverse sweep, sending the ball directly to first slip.
Interestingly, Gill has attempted the reverse sweep against spin bowlers 17 times throughout his career, with this being only the second time he has been dismissed while playing that shot.
Embedded Video: Shubman Gill discusses Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness, Kuldeep Yadav’s selection, team combination, and more in a press conference.
Since taking on the captaincy, Gill has enjoyed an outstanding run in Test cricket. His impressive haul of 754 runs in this period has surpassed the previous record of 752 set by Graham Gooch in 1990, which was the highest by a batsman in a Test series between India and England.
Furthermore, Gill also eclipsed Sunil Gavaskar’s record of 732 runs as captain against West Indies in the 1978-79 series. This 47-year-old record now belongs to Gill, bringing him tantalizingly close to Sir Don Bradman’s legendary 810-run benchmark for a captain in a single series.
Adding another feather to his cap, Shubman Gill broke Virat Kohli’s record to become the first Asian batter to score over 700 runs in a series played in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries. His current tally of 754 runs surpasses Kohli’s 692 runs achieved during the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.