Shubman Gill made a fantastic debut as India's new Test captain and slammed a magnificent century against England at Headingley on Day 1 of the first Test. The entire day was dominated by the Indian batters as the hosts found it very hard to grab wickets.
Earlier, England captain Ben Stokes' decision of electing to bowl first after winning the toss ended up backfiring big time as following Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul's opening stand of 91 runs, the former went on to form another big partnership with Gill.
Indian batters completely dominated on the first day
Both Jaiswal (101) and Gill (127*) would eventually end up scoring hundreds and newly-appointed vice-captain Rishabh Pant also finished the day unbeaten on 65. The Men in Blue would wrap up the first day on 359/3 and will now be looking to continue their domination on the second day as well.
Following the conclusion of the day's play, former England captain Naseer Hussain couldn't help but praise Gill for showing immense maturity as captain and further commended the Indian batters for playing controlled shots and punishing loose deliveries.
"They're brought up on a lot of white-ball cricket, and they're coming out of the IPL, so they know how to hit boundaries. But they got the balance right; they hit the bad balls for boundaries," Hussain said on Sky Sports.
"Brilliant day for India. The message would be to go again tomorrow. Gill has matured a lot since he got the captaincy for the Gujarat Titans," he added.
This was Gill's fifth century in Test cricket and his first outside the Asian continent. This was also only his second overseas century in the format with the last coming back in 2022 against Bangladesh in Chattogram. The 25-year-old further became just the fifth Indian batter after the likes of Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar and Virat Kohli to score a century in his debut innings as captain.
Gill's partnership with Pant has already reached the 138-run mark and the duo will be looking to inflict even more damage on the English bowling attack on the second day. While on the other hand, the hosts will be desperate for early wickets as they take the field on Saturday at Headingley.