India’s two-match Test series against Sri Lanka kicks off Saturday, August 15, in Galle. Shubman Gill, now leading the team at just 26 gets a real shot at making history.
He’s been in great form lately, and if he puts up at least 157 runs across these two Tests he’ll be the first Indian to reach 3,000 runs in the World Test Championship. Right now, Gill’s sitting at 2,843 runs from 40 WTC matches.
He stands at the top among Indian batters in the WTC ahead of Rishabh Pant and Rohit Sharma. Pant amassed 2,780 runs in 71 innings across 40 matches while Rohit finished with 2,716 runs in 40 games.
Here’s how the numbers stack up for Indians in the WTC:
Shubman Gill: 2,843 runs in 73 innings
Rishabh Pant: 2,780 runs in 71 innings
Rohit Sharma: 2,716 runs in 69 innings
Virat Kohli: 2,617 runs in 79 innings
Ravindra Jadeja: 2,610 runs in 73 innings
Looking at the WTC at large, Joe Root, England’s Test captain owns the record with an astonishing 6,651 runs across 77 matches. That puts him second overall in Test cricket’s run-scoring charts.
Gill’s got another milestone in his sights too: He could become the first Indian captain to score 1,000 runs in a single WTC cycle. So far, in this 2025-2027 cycle Gill’s racked up 950 runs in eight matches as captain.
Only three Indians have cracked 1,000 runs in a single WTC cycle: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, and Ajinkya Rahane. Gill is just 50 runs away from joining them; all he needs is a steady performance against Sri Lanka.
On the global stage, Joe Root also claims the record for most runs scored as captain in a single WTC cycle — he piled up 1,660 runs during the 2019-21 cycle over 20 games.
Only four captains have passed the 1,000-run mark in a WTC cycle: Root, Babar Azam, Dimuth Karunaratne, and Ben Stokes. Gill is poised to be the fifth and with his current run the odds look good.