Shub‘Man’ of the hour

Beyond the numbers and the records, what stood out was the distinct styles that Shubman Gill adopted in the two knocks that he played at Edgbaston, a sure sign of his maturity as a batter.

Shubman Gill, India’s new Test captain, has taken no time to hit his straps both as a batter and a leader of men. His appointment as skipper had been greeted with a fair bit of scepticism but thanks to the way he has eased himself into the role, the 25-year-old has allayed all fears. The three centuries that Gill has toted up in the first four innings of the current five-match Test series in England are notable not only for the impact they have had but also for the sublime manner in which they were crafted.

The youngster went about scoring runs with great finesse and authority, combining poise and gumption as he announced to the world that he was no longer a callow youth struggling for form and consistency in the most exacting format of the game. He had arrived. Until the England series got underway, Gill’s Test batting average in the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) was a meagre 17.64. He had only 300 runs from 10 innings. His Test average in England was particularly abysmal (14.66), having aggregated only 88 runs from six innings – not the kind of performance that would have inspired confidence as he led India out to the middle in the first Test at Headingley. All that is now a thing of the past. The sceptics have been silenced. Gill has stepped into the batting position vacated by Virat Kohli and quickly made it his own. His classy 147 in the first innings of the first Test at Headingley, one of five centuries by Indian batters in the match, did not yield the expected result. India lost the Test.

Never before in the history of Test cricket had a team tasted defeat despite five of its batters scoring centuries. While Gill himself became only the fifth Indian after Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Virat Kohli to score a century on Test captaincy debut, the team failed to drive home the advantage that it had over several sessions of the Test match. In the second Test at Edgbaston, Gill put the disappointment behind him and completely blunted the English bowling attack of Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Shoaib Bashir. In the time that he spent at the crease, he combined attack and defence to great effect, playing two outstanding but contrasting knocks. India, without the services of its pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, outplayed England in every department of the game, with fast bowlers Mohammad Siraj and Akash Deep doing more than enough not to let the team feel the absence of its bowling trump card.

Gill scored a double century and a century and led India to a resounding Test victory – the country’s first-ever at Edgbaston – and levelled the series 1-1. It was no ordinary win – the victory margin of 336 was India’s biggest away from home, eclipsing the 318-run win against the West Indies in 2019. While the nature and the magnitude of the Edgbaston win was historic, Gill’s personal achievements put everything else in the shade. A series of records tumbled or were threatened as he put up a batting masterclass for the ages in both innings of the Edgbaston Test.

By becoming the ninth batsman in Test cricket history – and the second Indian after Gavaskar, who achieved the feat 54 years ago – to score a 200 and a 100 in the same Test, Gill joined an elite band of men that includes Doug Walters, Greg Chappell, Lawrence Rowe, Graham Gooch, Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakkara and Marnus Labuschagne.

Gill’s individual aggregate of 430 runs in the Edgbaston Test is second only to the 456 runs that Gooch totalled in a Test match against India 35 years ago. The Indian batter reached many other milestones in the course of the series. Beyond the numbers and the records, what stood out was the distinct styles that Gill adopted in the two knocks that he played at Edgbaston, a sure sign of his maturity as a batter.

In the first innings, batting at No. 4, his masterly 269, the highest score by an Indian batter in England, he demonstrated monumental patience and concentration. He faced 387 deliveries in the course of the innings. In the second innings, he changed gears as India needed quick runs to set England an unreachable fourth innings target. His run-a-ball 161 showed his ability to adapt to the needs of the team.

As India heads into the next three Tests of the series, Gill will be within hailing distance of making more history. Having totalled nearly 600 runs in two Tests, he is on course to finding a place in the hallowed list of batsmen with the most runs in a Test series. If he carries his form into the Tests ahead, Ben Stokes’ boys, especially the bowlers, will have their task cut out. Sitting on the top of the list of most runs in a Test series is none other than Donald Bradman, who, in a 1930 Test series against Australia, scored 974 runs. The Australian legend is followed by England’s Wally Hammond, who, in 1928-29 against Australia, scored 905 runs. Being Bradmanesque is never easy, but Gill has set himself up for the kind of timeless glory that could take him very close to the Don, if not past him.