This is Shubman Gill's second Test century in two games in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
Indian skipper Shubman Gill became the third Indian and fifth overall batter to smash a double century in both ODI and Test cricket. He achieved the incredible milestone on the second day of the ongoing second Test against England at Edgbaston in Nottingham on Thursday, July 3. Gill joined the elite list featuring former India stalwarts Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, ODI skipper Rohit Sharma and West Indies legend Chris Gayle.
The right-hand batter recorded his maiden ODI double hundred against New Zealand in 2023 in Hyderabad, and this double ton against England at Edgbaston. Tendulkar was the first batter in the world to achieve a unique record when he recorded the first-ever ODI double hundred in 2010 against South Africa in Gwalior, while his maiden Test double century in 1999 against New Zealand in Ahmedabad. Notably, Sachin Tendulkar has six double tons in red-ball cricket, the second most after Virat Kohli, who has seven.
Sehwag was the second batter to achieve the milestone with a double hundred against the West Indies in Indore in 2011. Before that, he already had three double hundreds to his name in Test cricket and a couple of triple centuries as well. The list was then followed by Gayle, who already had one Test double century, having scored against New Zealand in 2002 a Queen’s Park, Trinidad. He scored his only double hundred in ODIs against Zimbabwe during the 2015 ODI World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Fourth batter in the list was Rohit Sharma, who has the most (three) double tons in ODIs, reached the feat in 2019 when he racked up 212 against South Africa in Ranchi.
With this feat, the 25-year-old also became the first Asian captain to score a double century in England and across all SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries. The previous best was 193 by Tillakaratne Dilshan at Lord’s in 2011.
Gill also broke Mohammed Azharuddin’s 34-year-old record for the highest individual Test score by an Indian captain in England. He surpassed Azhar’s 179 at Old Trafford in 1990 as he had already crossed the 200-mark and remains unbeaten by the time of writing the article.
This is just the second double hundred by an Indian captain in an overseas Test, after Virat Kohli’s 200 at North Sound in 2016.
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Gill also registered the highest individual score by an Indian batter in England Tests. He surpassed legendary Sunil Gavaskar’s 221 at The Oval in 1979. He also became the third Indian to post a 200+ score on English soil after former skipper and head coach Rahul Dravid’s iconic 217 at The Oval in 2002 and Gavaskar’s 221 in 1979. Notably. he was averaging just 25 in SENA countries before the series.
There have been 11 double hundreds by a captain in Tests in England (four for the hosts, seven for visiting teams). Gill became the youngest Indian and the second youngest overall to do so. Only South Africa’s Graeme Smith got there at a younger age than the 25-year-old Gill when he amassed 277 and 259 in back-to-back Tests at Edgbaston and Lord’s in 2003, the first coming at 22y, 175d.
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