Once he had waded through the early debris of doubt, Shubman Gill’s innings against England was as fresh as a spring bouquet sprigged with narcissi. Yet, when he reached his hundred, there was no sign of a Yashasvi Jaiswal-style double handed salute of delight to the crowd. A quiet waft of the bat and a puffed-cheeked sigh of relief was all he was willing to give.
Gill had been lucky to make it through the early onslaught from England’s bowlers on a cooler Visakhapatnam morning. Jimmy Anderson nipped the top of Rohit Sharma’s off-stump in his first over, removed Jaiswal in his next, and Gill looked as if he would inevitably follow, poking about like someone batting away brambles with a bread stick.
Sure enough, he was given out lbw to Tom Hartley on four but, instructed to review by Shreyas Iyer, was reprieved when the third umpire found a sniff of a bat edge on to pad. The grin, under the helmet, was broad. Another lucky break an over later after England reviewed a not‑out lbw shout from Anderson that hit high on the thrusting front pad. The verdict: umpire’s call. A couple more balls edged just short of slip. Joe Root banged the top of the little finger of his right hand trying to reach one – something for which India may yet be grateful.
But slowly Gill found his feet, now batting in a cap, as he and Iyer knocked England’s spinners for singles without too much worry. He cashed in when they got it wrong, cutting Rehan Ahmed twice to the rope, sweeping a Hartley full toss with a great spoonful of aplomb, and reaching fifty before lunch with two more consecutive boundaries off Ahmed, down the ground and through the covers.
A leisurely walk towards three figures was enlivened when he attacked Ahmed again, dismissing him for three successive boundaries: six down the pitch, a swept four that nearly took out a ballgirl and a sublime on‑drive with the back foot raised just so. The hundred when it came was almost anticlimactic, as was the reverse‑sweep that got him out a few balls later.
The mantle of Tendulkar is a heavy one. It drags and clamps as much as it uplifts. Virat Kohli has learned to live with it. For Gill, who was handed the chains after making 351 in an under-16 game, after making a double-century on his Vijay Merchant Trophy debut, after being named man of the series for India Under-19s against England, after being bought for $230,000 by the Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders aged 18, it has been hard to bear the weight of expectation.
Gill’s Test debut came during the thrilling Covid 2020-21 series against Australia, slotting in when Kohli flew home on paternity leave. After India had been dismantled for 36 in the second innings of the first Test, he restored some pride with a stylish 45 at the top of the order, made pretty runs through the series, and polished things beautifully in the fourth and final Test. There he made a spine-tingling 91 in the second innings, cutting Mitchell Starc for six in the process, helping India chase down 328 with 19 balls remaining in the match, alongside Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant. India, after being a Test down, won the series and retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy. It was Australia’s first defeat at the Gabba for 32 years.
All of India went crazy for Gill. The novelist Mukul Kesavan described him as the “unlikely sight of a young Cary Grant walking out to open for India”. The Australian writer Gideon Haigh called him “a once in a generation player”.
But there were ditches waiting. Injury, and loss of form and confidence. There was white‑ball success – he became the youngest man to hit a double century in one-day internationals, and made back to back hundreds in the IPL – but in Tests the runs stubbornly refused to flow as rapidly as his talent suggested they should.
After his 128 against Australia at Ahmedabad last March came a string of low scores – just three over 25 and none over 40 – in 12 innings. His place was not assured, and as the Indian selectors plumped for youth in the temporary absence of Kohli (personal reasons) and KL Rahul (hamstring) against England, people questioned who of the young blades would secure their places.
Gill is now inked in for the rest of the series and, unless Ben Stokes’s England can once again pull off the implausible, has dragged India back to parity alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Jaiswal. A spoonful of confidence medicine that could go a long way to lightening the load.
