Shubman Gill finally made it big in his new role in Test cricket. The Indian prodigy, who was having underwhelming outings at number three, got his maiden fifty-plus score and converted it into a hundred during the second Test against England in Visakhapatnam.
Gill had played 10 innings at number three before this Test after beginning his career opening the innings. Looking at his form in ODIs in 2023, fans and cricket pundits expected him to shine in the new role quickly but his outings did not do justice to those expectations. Now he finally gets that big knock at number three.
He is the first Indian to score a Test century at number three in India since 2017. Gill began batting at number three since the West Indies tour. He played five Tests in the new role before this game in Visakhapatnam. However, his previous outings in those Tests read 6, 10, 29*, 2, 26, 36, 10, 23, 0, 34. He used to suddenly look out of touch. But this innings would help him big way in regaining his confidence. However, the 24-year-old fell to Tom Hartley for 104 when he tried to reverse-sweep the left-arm spinner only to get his gloves with the ball settling into wicket-keeper Ben Foakes' hands.
Gill was lucky to start his innings. He was given out LBW at the start off Tom Hartley but the batter sent it upstairs to have a second look at it. As it came out, he had a faint edge on the ball before it hit his pads. Gill survived a couple of more times - first when England failing to convert an LBW decision and then when Joe Root could not take a catch to his left at the slips. But after being shaky at the start, Gill found his rhythm, scoring 11 fours and 2 sixes in his stroke-filled innings. Gill got to his 100 on his 132nd ball.
India's Playing XI:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Rajat Patidar, Srikar Bharat (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mukesh Kumar
England's Playing XI:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson
