Saturday 05 / July / 2025
Birmingham: Indian Captain Shubman Gill’s 161 off 162 balls saw India declare their innings at 427/6 in the final session on Day 4, setting a target of 608 runs for England.
Indian skipper Gill concluded a record-breaking Birmingham Test against England with breathtaking knocks of 269 and 161 across both innings, making him the batter with the second-highest aggregate of runs in a Test match.
While the first innings knock of 269 in 387 balls (with 30 fours and three sixes) was a marathon to tire out England bowlers simply, he pressed the accelerator in the second innings to construct a knock of 161 in 162 balls, with 13 fours and eight sixes, which was just as mesmerising.
With 430 runs across both innings, Gill has the second-highest aggregate of runs in a single Test, below England's Graham Gooch, who had an output of 456 runs after scoring 333 and 123 against India at Lord's back in 1990.
He also became the second batter to register 150-plus scores in both innings of a Test after Allan Border (150* & 153) against Pakistan in Lahore in 1980. Gill's outing is also the first instance of a 250-plus and 150-plus score in a Test by a batter.
He has become only second Indian after Gavaskar to hit a double ton and century in the same Test, scoring 124 and 220 against West Indies at Port of Spain in 1971. Other batters having achieved this feat include Australia's KD Walters, West Indies RG Lowe, Australia's Greg Chappell, England's Gooch, WI icon Lara, Sri Lanka's Sangakkara and Australia's Marnus Labuschagne.
He has outdone ex-skipper and legendary batter Virat Kohli (243 and 50) to have the highest aggregate by an Indian captain in a Test match. Virat's effort came against Sri Lanka at his home stadium, Arun Jaitley Stadium, back in December 2017.
Gill is the second Asian batter with 350-plus aggregate in a Test outside the subcontinent after Pakistan's Hanif Mohammad (354: 17 and 337) at Bridgetown in 1958.'
The youngster is also the third Asian batter to have a 300-plus run aggregate in a Test taking place in South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia (SENA) countries after Rahul Dravid (305) and Sachin Tendulkar (301) did that in Adelaide and Sydney respectively in 2003-04.
He is also the only third Indian captain to have a 100-plus score in both innings of the Test, besides Gavaskar (against West Indies in Kolkata, 1978), Virat (against Sri Lanka in 2017).
Gill is the second player to record three hundred in his first two Tests as captain after Virat Kohli.
Gill's masterful century after his classy double ton in the first innings has put India in a strong position in the second Test against England, with the visitors ahead of the hosts by 484 runs at Tea on the penultimate day.
Rishabh Pant's scintillating innings of 65 runs off 58 balls helped India quickly pile up the runs.
India was 304/4 at Tea with Gill (100*) and Jadeja (25*) unbeaten.
India started the second session at 177/3, with Gill 24* and Pant 41* unbeaten at the crease.
