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Shubman Gill dazzled with a superlative century to silence the criticism surrounding his recent lean form as a no.3 batter for India's Test team. Shubman Gill proved his batting prowess with a remarkable innings of 104 runs from 147 deliveries during the third innings of the second Test against England at Vishakhapatnam's ACA-VDCA stadium on February 4.
Shubman Gill bags another milestone
This performance catapulted him into an elite group of Indian cricketers who have scored the most centuries by the age of 24. Notably, Gill became only the third Indian player to achieve the milestone of 10 international cricket centuries by the age of 24.
The exclusive list is led by the legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar and his successor Virat Kohli. Tendulkar holds the record for the most centuries by a 24-year-old, with an impressive tally of 30 centuries, significantly surpassing Kohli's 21 tons. With his maiden Test hundred against the visiting England team, Shubman Gill overtook Virender Sehwag, who had ten centuries across different formats.
Gill notched his 10th century earlier today, placing him in the third position on this distinguished list, achieving this milestone at the age of 24 years and 149 days. While he will require another 11 centuries to match Kohli and 21 more to emulate Tendulkar, he faces a limited time frame to do so, with just seven months left before his 25th birthday on September 8.
Prior to this century, Shubman Gill was on par with legendary former cricketers like Sehwag, Ravi Shastri, and Yuvraj Singh. Gill's previous international century came against Australia in an ODI series last year, just before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 commenced.
He had the opportunity to surpass Sehwag for the third position during the World Cup itself if he had converted his 93-run knock against Sri Lanka in the group stages and his 80-run performance against New Zealand in the semi-finals at Wankhede. Nevertheless, the Indian team management will find solace in Gill's solid innings, which could potentially be a match-saving one.
The batter from Fazilka took charge on day 3, showcasing both caution and aggression in his batting approach. Instead of using aggressive strokes, he employed soft hands when playing the ball, a technique that had previously led to his regrettable dismissals after promising starts.
Observing Shubman Gill's confident intent on the field, it appeared as though he might emulate Yashasvi Jaiswal's masterful performance in the first innings, where Jaiswal registered his maiden Test double century in only his second Test match on home soil.
Bashir hunts down Gill
However, it seemed like Gill made an unnecessary decision when he attempted a reverse sweep shot against Shoaib Bashir. The 24-year-old misjudged the ball's length, closing his bat prematurely, causing the ball to strike his gloves and pop up in the air for an easy catch by Ben Foakes.
Gill was faring well without resorting to the reverse sweep, and he perhaps shouldn't have attempted to introduce further innovations into his batting, particularly given his current circumstances. Nevertheless, it is evident that his previous mistakes will be forgiven for the time being, though criticism may resurface if he doesn't maintain his form in the third Test at Rajkot.
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