Captain Shubman Gill scored a record-breaking double century to put India in the driver’s seat at 564 for 7 at tea on the second day of the second Test match against Edgbaston on Thursday. England were literally struggling to stop Gill, who was batting at 265 off 380 balls and stitched a 144-run partnership with Washington Sundar (42 off 103).
Since the pitch is flat and batting-friendly, the inexperienced Indian bowling attack will find it hard to take 20 wickets to be able to win the match. The conducive batting conditions, however, do not take the credit away Gill’s fluent double century. He has become the first Asian captain to score a double hundred in England. Gill has also overtaken Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid to register the highest individual score by an Indian batsman in England. What makes his achievement even more remarkable is that this is his first series as Test captain.
Gill has also made Number Four his regular batting position after the retirement of Virat Kohli. Playing with unmatched confidence, he also ensured that India did not again cede the advantage to England from a strong position after the Leeds debacle.
With England’s ploy to bowl short deliveries not working and Shoaib Bashir being at Gill’s receiving end, England even brought part timers Harry Brook and Joe Root into action. Gill hit five boundaries off Brook, while Sundar stood firm at the other end. Gill was stuck at 199 for a while, but the moment finally came when he pulled Tongue for a single towards fine leg. He was joined in his celebrations by the opposition players as well as the England fans.
Incidentally, it was Root who then struck for England by breaching the defence of Sundar as he played the wrong line.
In the morning session, England pacers could not extract much from the surface as Gill and Ravindra Jadeja (89 off 137) continued to score at a steady pace as they built a 203-run stand off 279 balls. India added 109 runs in 25 overs to their overnight total of 310 for five. Tongue eventually got a breakthrough late in the session with a short ball which Jadeja nicked to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
While Jadeja resumed his innings with a crisp back foot punch through the cover and a cut off Stokes, Gill got his first boundary of the day in the third man region before hitting a cover-drive off Chris Woakes. Gill even played the reverse sweep off spinner Bashir. Later in the session, he swept Bashir for a six behind square. Jadeja too joined the onslaught and stepped out to smash Bashir for a six over mid-on.
Scoreboard: India 1st Innings: Yashasvi Jaiswal c Smith b Stokes 87 KL Rahul b Woakes 2 Karun Nair c Brook b Carse 31 Shubman Gill batting 265 Rishabh Pant c Crawley b Shoaib Bashir 25 Nitish Kumar Reddy b Woakes 1 Ravindra Jadeja c Smith b Tongue 89 Washington Sundar b Root 42 Akash Deep batting 0 Extras: (B-6, LB-6, NB-8, W-2) 22 Total: (For 7 wkts, 141 overs) 564 Fall of wkts: 1-15, 2-95, 3-161, 4-208, 5-211, 6-414, 7-558.
Bowling: Chris Woakes 25-6-81-2, Brydon Carse 24-3-83-1, Josh Tongue 23-0-111-1, Ben Stokes 19-0-74-1, Shoaib Bashir 40-2-152-1, Joe Root 5-0-20-1, Harry Brook 5-0-31-0.
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