‘He used to sit on my lap with bat’: Cricketer Shubman Gill’s grandpa cheers iconic double century from home; shares his boyhood story

BATHINDA: When Shubhman Gill became the first Indian captain to hit an iconic double ton in a Test match in England, his 90-year-old grandfather Didar Singh, who had been watching his stroke play on television, smiled serenely and showed the thumbs-up sign.

He also said this had infused new strength in him, and he felt younger than his 90 years.Shubhman scored his 200th run on the first ball of the 122nd over of the first innings of the match bowled by J Tongue. Literally on cloud nine, Didar Singh reminisced about the time when a bat-wielding Shubhman, barely 5 years old then, had climbed onto his lap.With this feat, Shubhman has become the youngest to score a double ton in ODIs and Tests at 25 years, making Punjab proud of his feat. He is only the second from Punjab after Navjot Singh Sidhu to score a double century in Test matches. Sidhu had scored 201 runs against the West Indies in the second Test of the 1997 series at Port of Spain. Shubhman has also joined the elite league comprising only Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma, having scored double hundreds as a captain of the national squad.Shubhman had scored 208 runs in a one day international (ODI) on Jan 18, 2023, in the first match of the series against New Zealand, becoming the fifth Indian batsman to hit a double century in ODIs and the youngest batsman to achieve the feat.

Didar Singh, while speaking to TOI, said, "Shubhman was less than five years old when he first held the cricket bat and played in the courtyard of our home at Chak Jaimal Singh Wala village in Fazilka. Seeing his keen interest in cricket, my son Lakhwinder shifted to Jalalabad when Shubhman was only seven years old, as there were better sports facilities in Jalalabad. After some time, he shifted to Chandigarh for Shubhman's career in cricket.

" The cricketer was born on Sep 8, 1999, at Punjab's Chak Jaimal Singh Wala village.Didar Singh last met Shubhman nearly three months ago at his Mohali residence and witnessed him play in a stadium duing the the 2024 IPL matches at Jaipur and Ahmedabad.Didar Singh, along with his wife Gurmail Kaur, said, "Shubhman loved me a lot and used to spend most of his time with me until he shifted to Jalalabad. When he began playing international cricket, he used to ring me up when he achieved any milestone... infusing me with a booster dose of joy and strength. It is the same today."The string of congratulatory messages for Gill's grandparents had them basking in his glory.