In all team sports, a captain is responsible for making key decisions. Part of the role is to make contributions. This can take many forms. For example, the captain could lead his/her team to victory or do a salvaging job and trying to avoid a defeat. In the current 2nd Test between England and India, the latter's captain, Shubman Gill, has definitely fulfilled all the requirements. Most of it has come from his bat. In the process, he has shattered a few records.
Gill scored 269 in the first innings and 161 in the second innings. This equates to a total of 430 for this match. This means that he is now the second-highest aggregate scorer in a Test behind Englishman, Graham Gooch's 456 against India in 1990.
Gill became the second batter to make two 150-plus scores in a Test, after Aussie, Allan Border, who scored 150* and 153 against Pakistan in Lahore in 1980. Gill is one of nine batters with a century and a double-century in a Test. Among Indians, only Sunil Gavaskar had done the double before Gill.
Shubman Gill became the third Indian captain to score hundreds in both innings of a Test match. Gavaskar scored 107 and 182* against West Indies at Eden Gardens in 1978 and Virat Kohli scored 115 and 141 against Australia in Adelaide in 2014. Gill is also the second Indian with hundreds in both innings of a Test in England, after Rishabh Pant, who did it in the previous Test at Headingley.
In total, India scored 1 014 runs. This is their highest aggregate score in a Test, beating the 916 against Australia at the SCG in 2004. It's the fourth-highest aggregate overall and the sixth time a team has scored more than 1 000 in a Test.
There have been four century partnerships for India in the current Edgbaston Test and all of them involved Gill. He is the first Indian and only the fifth batter to be part of four century stands in a Test. The others are: Hanif Mohammad (Pakistan) (vs. West Indies in 1958); Graham Gooch (vs. India in 1990); Mark Taylor (Australia) (vs. Pakistan in 1998) and Joe Root (England) (vs. Pakistan in 2016).
Shubman Gill has scored 585 runs in the series so far. This is the second-highest aggregate in the first two matches of a series, behind Graeme Smith's 621 in England in 2003. Gill also has the highest tally in the first two Tests as captain, bettering Kohli, who scored 449 runs.
Statistics supplied by ESPNCricinfo
Gill has spent the past four days breaking Test records like they are plates at a Greek wedding: the highest score by an India captain; the highest score by an Indian in England; the highest score by an Indian outside Asia and the highest aggregate match score by an Indian. In 12 and a half hours of batting, spanning 549 balls, he single-handed scored 42% of his side’s runs. All this from a man who had made one Test century outside Asia before this tour. There hasn't been anything like it from a new captain since South Africa’s Graeme Smith peeled off those back-to-back double hundreds in 2003.
He did it despite coming into this match under all sorts of pressure. One-nil down in his first series as captain after conceding 373 in the fourth innings at Headingley, he found himself having to explain the baffling decision to leave Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav out of the team, which meant he had to do without his best fast bowler and his best slow bowler; as well as his team’s senior pro and de facto captain in the field, so they could fit in a couple of willing all-rounders to prop up the batting. If he had failed, they would have failed, and if they had failed, there would have been hell to pay.
Shubman Gill's childhood coach, Sukhwinder Tinku, praised him for his superb double hundred in the first innings, followed by a hundred in the second innings of the 2nd Test against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Tinku praised Gill's technical foundation and composure, expressing confidence that this is just the beginning of a record-breaking career.
While speaking to ANI, Sukhwinder Tinku said, "Shubman is just getting started. He will make more records. What he is today is a result of his techniques. I prepare all my students technically. He understood the game very young. He has always played with composure."
The 25-year-old's second century of the match took his overall tally for the game to 430 runs, a figure bettered by India great Sachin Tendulkar, Test cricket's all-time leading run-scorer, just three times in a series, let alone a match, during his celebrated career.
Following his commanding 269 in the first innings, Gill also became the first batsman in 148 years of Test history to make a score of 250 and 150 in the same match. All that came after Gill's 147 in his first Test as captain, India's five-wicket loss in last week's series opener at Headingley.
"Gill is outrageous," England fast-bowling great, Stuart Broad, well used to working out world-class batsmen during a career that yielded 604 Test wickets, told Sky Sports after Saturday's close of play.
"As a bowler, I'd be looking for technical things so I could expose him, but he's not shown any obvious signs of dismissal and he's played stylishly. He's played with huge responsibility, under big pressure. It's breathtaking... He deserves all the applause he will get."
Shubman Gill has, without a doubt, stepped up to the plate. He was leading from the front from the get-go of the 2nd Test. At the same time, he has time to grow more into the role. He's young so there's no rush into his development. At this rate, he could become world-class by the time he calls time on his career. He will be a fond memory for all Indian supporters.