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India's captain Shubman Gill acknowledges the applause from the crowd as he leaves the field at the end of play on day one of the second cricket test match between England and India at Edgbaston in Birmingham, England, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)
Shubman Gill is batting in his own world as he followed up a century in his first innings as India’s Test captain in Leeds with a double century in the second match at Edgbaston. The 25-year-old got to the mark in 311 balls, his innings punctuated by 21 fours and two sixes. Gill has also broken a plethora of records on the way – he is the first Asian captain to have scored a double century in a Test match in England. Naturally, Gill has also set a new record for highest score by an Indian captain in a Test innings in England, going past the 179 scored by Mohammad Azharuddin in 1990.
Gill is only the fifth Indian to have scored a double century as Test captain after Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Sunil Gavaskar and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Gill is also now the fourth Indian to have double centuries in Tests and ODIs after his predecessor as captain Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
Most secure century ever on Day 1
His knock on Day 1 of the Test was the statistically the most secure ever scored on English shores, since such records have been kept. According to CricViz, Gill’s false shot percentage during Wednesday’s knock was just 3.5 percent. The average in England is 12 percent. The BBC said this statistic made it the most controlled hundred in England since 2006, when such numbers began being collated. It contained just two outside edges off Chris Woakes – both before Gill had reached 20. There was an inside edge off Brydon Carse that helped Gill survive an LBW appeal. England took a review, but burnt it.
Any edge, play-and-miss or mishit is considered a false shot, and there were three more of these from Gill – one off Woakes and two off Gill’s counterpart Ben Stokes. Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara, all of whom have scored memorable hundreds in England, didn’t exhibit this level of control. Neither did home team stalwarts such as Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen and Joe Root.
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