Shubman Gill etched his name into the record books on Thursday (July 3) by becoming only the second Indian captain to score 150 or more in a Test match played on English soil.
The 25-year-old, who is leading India in the ongoing five-match Test series against England, brought up his 150 during the first innings of the second Test at Edgbaston. Gill reached the landmark in style, with a single off the 263rd ball of his innings, continuing his fine form as captain.
Before Gill, Mohammad Azharuddin was the only Indian captain to achieve this feat in England. Azharuddin scored a brilliant 179 off 243 balls in the 1990 Manchester Test at Old Trafford, batting at No. 5.
With his current unbeaten 150*, Gill now holds the second-highest score by an Indian captain in a Test in England. The list is rounded out by Virat Kohli, who scored 149 off 225 balls in the 2018 Test at Edgbaston, MAK Pataudi’s 148 at Leeds in 1967, and Gill’s own 147 in Leeds earlier in this series.
Gill is now within striking distance of surpassing Azharuddin’s record for the highest individual score by an Indian captain in a Test in England. He needs just 30 more runs to set a new benchmark.
Beyond that, Gill could be eyeing even bigger milestones. So far, only two Indian batters—Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid—have scored double centuries in a Test in England. If Gill reaches the 200-run mark, he will become the first Indian captain to do so on English soil and the first to score a double century as skipper in any of the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia).
Until now, Virat Kohli is the only Indian captain to have scored a double century in an overseas Test—200 against West Indies at North Sound in 2016.
