England vs India 2nd Test: Shubman Gill now holds the record for the highest individual score by an Indian captain in Test history. He went past Virat Kohli's record during the second Test against England at Edgbaston on Thursday.
Gill smashed a remarkable double century on the second day of the match, the first of his Test career and ended up breaking a plethora of records during his incredible stay at the crease. The right-handed batter surpassed Virat Kohli’s 254* at Pune, 2019, during the 136th over of India's first innings, taking a single off Shoaib Bashir.
He also recorded the highest score by an Indian captain in an overseas Test. Virat Kohli held the record with his 200 against West Indies at North Sound in 2016, being the previous best by an Indian captain away from home.Gill's double century was also the first by an Indian captain in England. Only five other Indian captains have recorded double tons in Tests - MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Kohli and MS Dhoni.
Gill's sensational early run in this ongoing series, with an added context over the questions over his disappointing record with the bat in Test cricket before this, has led to former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel comparing it with the famous century that Virat Kohli had scored at Edgbaston in 2018.
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Patel said that the way both batters celebrated their centuries reflected the similarity in circumstances in which they came.
"There was something common in both these celebrations," said Patel on Star Sports. "At the start of the 2018 series there were questions over Virat Kohli’s numbers in England, there were still scars from that 2014 tour. Similar questions were there over Shubman Gill because he had not yet scored a century in SENA nations."
Notably, the 25-year-old Gill has big shoes to fill in as he has a huge challenge to take the no.4 legacy forward where Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli dominated for years.
ENG vs IND Playing XI, 2nd Test
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna