Our Bureau
London
There were a lot of questions when Shubman Gill was anointed as the captain of the Indian Test Team. His overseas batting record was questioned and people even questioned whether he was the right man to take the no. 4 spot after Virat Kohli. Gill has answered all these questions with a blazing hundred where he never looked out of touch or in some sort of trouble.
Starting the tour with a bang, the Indian captain ended the Day 1 with 127 runs not out and India on the commanding seat with 359 runs at a loss of 3 wickets. With this ton, Gill became the fourth youngest player ever to score a hundred in his first match leading the side. At 25 years and 285 days, he was just behind Herbie Taylor, Alastair Cook and Steven Smith.
Gill also became the 23rd player ever to score a century on his debut match as captain in the red ball format. He is now part of the elite list of Indian captains who crossed the triple digit mark in their first match as captain, the list includes Indian cricket legends like – Vijay Hazare (164* vs England, Delhi 1951), Sunil Gavaskar (116 vs New Zealand, Auckland 1976) and Virat Kohli (115 vs Australia, Adelaide 2014).
Starting the new era in Indian cricket, Gill and his men were asked to bat by English captain Ben Stokes when he won the toss. But apart from the toss, it was India who dominated the day. The opening pair which was missing former captain Rohit Sharma, didn’t let it show. KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal stitched up a 91 run opening partnership giving India a strong start.
India lost two quick wickets with Rahul and the debuting Sai Sudarshan departed in the span of 6 deliveries. Then Gill walked out to bat at no.4 and after that India hardly struggled. It was masterclass from Jaiswal who played a superb knock of 101 off 159 balls scoring his first century in England. After his dismissal, the Vice Captain Rishabh Pant joined Gill and together they took India to a total of 359 at the end of the day as Pant remained not out at 65 off 102 balls.
