Shubman Gill began his Test captaincy on a historic note as he slammed a century in his maiden innings as skipper during the first Test match against England. Taking over the reins from Rohit Sharma straightaway in a tough England tour, Gill slammed his maiden ton outside Asia.
Gill has become just the fifth Indian player to hit a hundred in his maiden innings as captain in Test cricket. He joins the elite list featuring Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli, becoming only the fifth Indian captain to have done so.
Indian players with half-centuries in maiden innings as captain:
Vijay Hazare: 164* vs England in Delhi in 1951
Sunil Gavaskar: 116 vs New Zealand in Auckland in 1976
Virat Kohli: 115 vs Australia in Adelaide in 2014
Gill youngest Indian to hit a ton in maiden innings as captain
Meanwhile, Gill is also the youngest Indian player to score a hundred on a maiden innings as captain in Test cricket. He was the youngest man to hit a fifty in maiden innings as skipper and now becomes the youngest to hit a hundred too at 25y and 285d.
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, creates history
In what has been a strong day for the Indian batters, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal had slammed century earlier. 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.
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