Embarking on a new role as captain in Test cricket, Shubman Gill created a historical record during the first Test match of the five-match series against England at Leeds. Gill's India are into a new era of Test cricket, post the Test retirements of stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and the international retirement of Ravi Ashwin.
Gill has registered a major milestone as he slammed a fifty on his captaincy debut at Headingley on Friday, June 20. He has become only the ninth Indian captain to hit a fifty-plus score in maiden innings as Test skipper.
Notably, of all the nine players, Gill is the youngest Indian captain to hit a ton in his maiden innings at 25y and 285d. Kohli was 26 years, one month and six days when he hit his hundred on debut innings as captain in December 2014 against Australia.
List of Indians to hit century in maiden innings as Test captain:
Vijay Hazare
Hemu Adhikari
Nari Contractor
Chandu Borde
Sunil Gavaskar
Sourav Ganguly
Virat Kohli
Shubman Gill
Jaiswal slams century
Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal slammed a scintillating hundred during the first innings as he punished the England bowlers. Jaiswal took only 144 balls to get to his fifth Test century. Meanwhile, Jaiswal has created a historical record.
Jaiswal has become the first Indian player to hit a century in both Australia and England in his first Test match. Jasiwal had slammed 161 on his maiden Test on Australian soil in Perth and now hit 101 before getting dismissed by a peach from Ben Stokes in the third session of the opening day.
Earlier, India were asked to bat first after England captain Ben Stokes had won the toss. "We'll bowl. Headingley is a very good cricket wicket. We've had some really good games here. Want to try and use the early conditions. Been a long time coming, bit strange that this is just the second series, but we're ready. It's been mixed, some lads have played county cricket, and we've had three days of really good cricket. Usual suspects in the top seven, Woakes, Brydon, Bashir, Tongue, and I make up the bowling," England captain Ben Stokes said at the toss.
"Would've bowled first as well, might be a bit tough in the first session, but it should be good to bat on later. The sun is out, should be a good batting deck for us. Preparation has been amazing, we played a practice game in Beckenham, and the lads are feeling great. Sai makes his debut, and Karun comes in. Sai will bat at three," India skipper Gill said.
