He has scored 585 runs in the first two matches of the England Test tour so far.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has recently recalled his thoughts after watching India’s current Test captain, Shubman Gill, in the nets for the first time. Notably, the 25-year-old is currently enjoying a red-hot form, especially after taking up leadership duties after the retirement of former skipper Rohit Sharma from this format.
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The former head coach heaped praise on Gill for leading the team towards a historic victory in the second Test. He revealed how Gill’s shots while facing Team India’s throwdown specialist in the nets impressed him. Shastri also discussed how the youngster used to observe the modern-day great Virat Kohli to take learnings and inspirations from one of the stalwarts of the game.
“I saw him in the nets and Raghu bowls at 160+, this guy was whacking. I have not seen an Indian player pulling him in that fashion. Kohli, and after Kohli, this fellow. This guy used to watch Kohli very, very closely, whatever he did, the way he trained, and everything he did,” stated Shastri on a Sky Sports podcast.
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The former batter remembered how he instantly called Vikram Rathour, who was the batting coach of India, to enquire about the promising youngster. This was followed by a discussion with the BCCI selectors to include him in the team swiftly.
“I said who’s this guy, man! Bring him into the mix immediately. So we spoke to the selectors, and he came pretty quickly. Took a while to play, but brought him into the mix. The first time I saw him, I said — this is class.” he added.
The 25-year-old made his red-ball debut in the Boxing Day Test match during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series in 2020. Since then, he has piled up 1,177 runs in 17 matches, including four centuries at home. But the opener was yet to prove his overseas abilities as he scored only 649 runs in 13 matches before the current England tour. Notably, his only overseas ton came in Bangladesh in 2022.
However, the youngster has broken several records with three of his magnificent innings in the recent two Test matches in England. Gill scored a sublime 147, which was his career-best in the format, in the series opener at Headingley. But India lost the match by five wickets.
In the second match at Edgbaston, he notched up a mammoth 269, which is the highest aggregate by an Indian batter in a red-ball match so far. The 25-year-old followed it up with another remarkable 161 in the second innings to go past Virat Kohli in scoring the most runs by an Indian skipper in the format. Moreover, a spirited performance from the entire unit helped India to claim a massive 336-run victory to level the series before heading into Lord’s. With this, Gill also guided India to a maiden Test win in Birmingham under his captaincy.
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