New Delhi: Shubman Gill missed out on a historic triple century, but his epic double century put India in a strong position in the Edgbaston Test vs England. Gill looked set to become only the third Indian after Virender Sehwag and Karun Nair to score a triple ton in Test, but fell 31 runs short of the landmark figure.
After playing a largely untroubled innings, Gill was undone by a tired shot as he pulled a short ball from Josh Tongue straight to square leg. Disappointed with the stroke, Gill dragged himself off the field, but to a great round of applause from his rivals, teammates and fans.
Courtesy of his marathon knock and half-centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal (87) and Ravindra Jadeja (89), India posted a mammoth 587 in the first innings after batting for almost two days at Edgbaston.
Record-breaking Gill reaches unprecedented heights
During the course of his epic knock, Gill broke several records, including becoming the first Indian captain to score a double century in England. He also surpassed Sunil Gavaskar’s 221 to post the highest score by an Indian on English soil. Before Gill, only Virender Sehwag (vs Pak in Multan) and Rahul Dravid (vs Pak in Rawalpindi) scored 250-plus scores for India in away Tests. He also joined legends like Bob Simpson (AUS) and Graeme Smith (SA) to score 250-plus as a visiting captain.
Captain Gill steers India through the storm
When Gill came to bat, India were in a tricky situation. Having lost KL Rahul early and a well-set Karun Nair on the stroke of Lunch on Day 1, the visitors needed someone to hold fort and build partnerships for a big first-innings score on a flat track.
Gill, like he has done with the new role of captaincy, embraced the pressure and played watchfully to weather the storm. He added 66 with Jaiswal while playing second fiddle and stitched another cautious stand (46) with Rishabh Pant.
The dismissal of Pant brought Nitish Kumar Reddy, one of the three batting all-rounders in the side, but the Hyderabad batter returned to the pavillion without troubling the scorers.
At 211/5, anything around 450 looked far from possible, but Gill took charge of the situation and added 203 for the sixth wicket with Jadeja to turn the tide in India’s favour.
The epic partnership was followed by another massive stand as Gill showed immense maturity and awareness to add 144 runs with Washington Sundar, who also made a useful contribution of 42 runs.
India’s aggregate of 376 is the most India have scored in a Test after the fall of the fifth wicket.
Gill might have missed out on a landmark triple century, but his epic 269 has put India in a position of dominance.