Gill’s scintillating century reaffirms his place in red ball cricket

Shubman Gill

After his rare failure in the Indore Test, Shubman Gill scored a scintillating second Test a hundred in Ahmedabad. When he reached the milestone on the third day of play, the former India Captain, Virat Kohli, seemed to be the happiest man in the dugout.

After the departure of Cheteshwar Pujara, when King Kohli walked up to the crease, delight was writ large on both their faces. It used to be the same when Kohli came out to bat with Sachin Tendulkar at the other end. Tendulkar always felt that Kohli was his true successor and one can assume that Kohli may be feeling the same about Gill. The passing of the baton of Indian batsmanship was evident in Ahmedabad.

At the end of the day’s play, Australian spinner Nathan Lyon praised Gill’s stroCkeplay. One also recalls an unexpected answer from New Zealand’s Coach Gary Stead, who spoke glowingly of Gill even though the question was about the best Indian pacer.

“Umran Malik has a lot of pace, it’s always exciting to see a fast bowler generate that much pace. The other player who most impressed me was Shubham Gill. I have not seen him play much white ball cricket, but I think he has the temperament and patience to be a fine opening batsman for India in all formats in the future,” Stead had said at the end of India’s tour of New Zealand last year.

There’s also a calm, self-assured air of impending greatness in Gill. He has been a prodigy and been marked as the next big thing in Indian cricket by Yuvraj Singh, but we have seen many talented players get carried away by such effusive assessment, attention, and adulation in the beginning of their career. But despite highs and lows, Gill remains unaffected, almost Dhoni-like in his calmness.

This writer has watched his practice sessions in England, Zimbabwe, West Indies, and New Zealand in recent months, and the one thing that was common on all tours was his long chats with Batting Coach Vikram Rathour or Head Coach VVS Laxman.

Rathour comes from Gill’s home state Punjab and has seen his game since childhood, and they can be seen discussing batting for hours. All that talk seems to be paying off now as he has scored two hundreds in the last six innings.

Apart from a superb 91 in Brisbane in 2021, his first six innings’ scores read 45, 35*, 50, 31, and 7.  In the next 16 innings, Gill could only go past 50 on two occasions. As a result, he was dropped from the team.

How did he deal with that phase, and what was going wrong for him, this writer asked Gill at the end of play in Ahmedabad, during his interaction with the media.

“There was a phase in the middle when I was scoring 40s and getting out. I felt that as soon as I was getting set, I was getting over-defensive and over-cautious. I was thinking that now that I have got set, I will have to bat as long as possible. I was putting myself under too much pressure,” explained Gill.

Despite scoring four tons in white ball cricket in 2023, Gill was overlooked for the first two Test matches in the Border Gavaskar trophy. Fans and pundits were aghast that a talent like Gill had been kept out of the playing XI for someone like KL Rahul, who was struggling.  Gill says that he was not bothered by all that and just kept on working hard.

“The period during which I was getting out after getting set, most of my dismissals were while trying to defend, which isn’t my natural game. I felt that if I got out trying to play a shot after getting set, I could accept that, because I got out while playing to my strengths. But if I get out playing a game which isn't my style, then that’s unacceptable. So I had to tell myself that I shouldn't put too much pressure on myself that I must convert now that I am set. I needed to keep it a bit free-flowing. It was more about mental make-up and I focussed on that primarily,” explained Gill, who scored a fine 128, delighting the weekend crowd in Ahmedabad.

Prior to this ton, Gill’s batting average of 30 in 14 matches did not do justice to his potential. Compare this with his ODI record (no one has averaged nearly 75 in their first 21 games) or even T20I, where he averages around 40 and his strike rate is 165.

Despite his not-so-glittering Test record, there is a sense of inevitability that sooner rather than later Gill would not only replace Rahul but will bring his white ball form to the red ball game. And that is precisely what has happened.

If Gill continues to bat like this for a couple of years, there is another thing which looks inevitable — future India captaincy, as he is the only player who plays all formats of the game with equal felicity.