Shubman Gill remained the biggest thorn in England’s path to victory. Throughout the series, the hosts were wary of the newly appointed Indian Test captain. A batter with immense potential, Gill hadn’t done himself service by his performances. He averaged a mere 35.05, but such was his promise that he was named as Rohit Sharma‘s replacement.
By the end of the tour, Gill’s average has boomed up to 41.35. One could have expected him to score 400 or 500 runs. But 754? That perhaps wasn’t even what Gill would have thought he could achieve. Joe Root scored a whopping 217 fewer runs than him, and he was the second-best batter of the series.
Gill keeps his ‘best batter’ promise
Before the India vs England Tests even began, Gill had already stated that his desire was to focus on his batting. He wanted to end the tour as the best batter across both sides.
“Honestly, when I want to go out there and bat, I just want to play as a batsman. I don’t want to think that I’m the captain of the team, because I think that sometimes puts too much pressure on you. Whenever I’m going out there, I want to play as a batsman and want to dominate the opposition and be the best batsman in the series, and that’s what I’m trying to look at,” Gill had said on the eve of the first Test.
Considering Root, Harry Brook, and Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s performance and track record, it would have been difficult. But we didn’t know that we’d be seeing the same Gill we had seen in Australia about 7 months ago. This was his 2.0 version. Jaiswal scored 411 runs in the series; Gill had scored 430 runs in Edgbaston. He couldn’t break the all-time Indian record, but as captain and as a batter, Gill couldn’t have done better.
“Feels very rewarding. There were certain things I wanted to work on as a batter, and it was a goal to end as the best batter of this series. I’m glad to get that goal. It is always a combination of technique and mentality; when you are feeling good mentally, then the technique naturally flows,” Gill said after being adjudged as India’s player of the series.
Most runs by an Indian batter in a Test series
| Batter | Matches | Innings | Runs | Average | 100s | 50s | Highest Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunil Gavaskar | 4 | 8 | 774 | 154.80 | 4 | 3 | 220 |
| Shubman Gill | 5 | 10 | 754 | 75.4 | 4 | 0 | 269 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 6 | 9 | 732 | 91.50 | 4 | 1 | 205 |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | 5 | 9 | 712 | 89.00 | 2 | 3 | 214* |
| Virat Kohli | 5 | 8 | 692 | 86.50 | 4 | 1 | 169 |
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