In his debut innings as captain, Shubman Gill managed to score a scintillating century at Headingley. He was under tremendous pressure, having an average of only 14.66 in England, but Gill didn’t let the past experiences haunt him as the 25-year-old played to merit to reach the triple-figure mark. Gill was calm in his approach and built important partnerships with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant to complete his sixth century in Test cricket.
With that, he also surpassed Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal for the most centuries in the World Test Championship. Earlier in the day, Jaiswal scored a ton to join the duo, but Gill didn’t take much time to overtake. Currently, only Rohit Sharma has the most centuries for India in the WTC. The former India Test captain has nine to his name.
Most Test centuries for India in WTC:
| Indian Player | Most centuries in WTC cycle |
| Rohit Sharma | 9 |
| Shubman Gill | 6 |
| Virat Kohli | 5 |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | 5 |
| Mayank Agarwal | 4 |
| Rishabh Pant | 4 |
Gill hits first century outside Asia
The century was also Gill’s first Test ton outside Asia. He had scored five in India and one in Bangladesh. The cricketer was criticised for the same and was reminded several times ahead of the series, but nothing seemed to bother him during his stay in the middle. He led from the front and graciously carried Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar’s legacy of being the pillar at number four.
The youngster would be hoping to carry on with the form as he will be a vital cog for India for the entire series. Without Rohit and Virat, they lack experience in the middle, and for the same, Gill will have to the responsibility and deal well with the pressure.
Gill completes 2000 Test runs
Gill also completed 2000 Test runs in the first Test. He required 107 runs to complete the record, and the cricketer eventually got it done. Meanwhile, Gill also became the fourth Indian to score a Test century on captaincy debut. Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli held the record previously.