Boria Majumdar in Birmingham
He had to wait for three overs and the crowd was getting restless. For two overs Washington Sundar ran a single off the last ball and Shubman Gill was off strike. Thereafter in the third over, Ben Stokes did put the field back on the sixth ball to lure Washington to run another single. The idea was to frustrate Gill. This time Washington wouldn’t do any such thing. He blocked Shoaib Bashir and Gill was on strike.
Stokes took nearly a minute to set the field and moved two fielders on the on side to try and tempt Gill. With a packed on-side field, Tongue bowled one that was sliding down leg and Gill just helped its way to an easy single. As he started running, the celebration had started. Just the third Indian after Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid to score a double hundred in England, and that too in his second game as skipper. In scoring the double ton, Gill has made sure that India has reached close to 500 after being reduced to 211/5. That, needless to say, is a massive achievement.
In all fairness, India likely aren’t losing this. They have not collapsed like in Leeds and the skipper hasn’t thrown his wicket away. A near flawless innings, it stands out for his temperament and grit. At no point did Gill look like getting out. No bowler troubled him and I include Chris Woakes here and that was the hallmark. He looked like a man possessed and was just toying with the England bowling on occasions.
He had said to me at the pre-match press conference that he shouldn’t have played the shot he did at Leeds and should have scored 50 more runs and batted England out of the game. Clearly he wanted to own the stage. Be the top dog and lead the charge. He has done so as batter and leader, and has set the game up for his team.
The wicket is a beauty to bat on but there is something called scoreboard pressure. Add the fact that England have been out there for 140 overs, and you know India will have a chance. The captain has led from the front and has opened the door. Now, his boys need to step up and make it memorable for him. But one thing is now certain – captaincy rests well on Gill the batter. The No. 4 position in Indian cricket stays regal and Gill is the rightful heir after Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. As I write the piece, he isn’t done yet and one can only hope he goes on and bats England out of it.
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