India legend Sunil Gavaskar has praised Shubman Gill for his extraordinary run in England this time around, especially after getting an additional responsibility as the team’s skipper.
India might be trailing in the series and would have to rely on the final Test match at The Oval to lay hands on the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Despite all the series has been of some redemption for new skipper Shubman Gill as a batsman. Also, this series has been special for the likes of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and even Ravindra Jadeja.
Considering Gill’s excellence in the tournament, he has gathered more than 750 runs in the series and has 4 hundreds as well, the most by any Indian skipper in his debut series as the skipper. To this, several Indian greats have seemed impressed, while Gavaskar has now finally made an official statement to praise the Indian skipper.
Your daily dose of cricket!
Sunil Gavaskar impressed by Shubman Gill’s stunning show in England
The right-handed Indian batter played fabulously as he scored 754 runs in the series in 10 innings, while he missed out on going past Gavaskar’s 54-year-old record, where the Little Master had amassed a total of 774 runs against the West Indies back in 1971.
Shubman Gill has not scored a single half-century in the series, as he scored four big daddy hundreds, and one of them was a huge double-hundred that came in the course of India’s massive win at Edgbaston.
Gavaskar, at the end of Day 3’s play, mentioned how Shubman Gill’s 754 is much more crucial or tougher to attain than even his 774 against the challenging West Indies bowling attack.
“Well, yes, in anticipation of him going past my record, I had gotten something for him. This is all in God’s hands. But 754 runs—it’s fantastic. The difference is that 754 runs have come with him having the additional responsibility of being the captain,” said Gavaskar while speaking to Sanjana Ganesan and Cheteshwar Pujara.
“Mine, I was the baby of the team; it wouldn’t have mattered. If I failed, nobody would have given a hoot. As the captain, to score 754 runs. More than 750 runs, where he is making the difference to his side’s fortunes. Don’t go by those 20 runs; just see what those 754 runs have done for Indian cricket,” he added.
Most Runs by an Indian batter in a Single Test series
Recently, after Shubman Gill scored this many runs in the longest format of the game, it rekindled thoughts on which batter has scored the most runs in a single series while playing for India.
The legendary Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar stands at the top of the list with a record-breaking 774 runs in the series against the West Indies back in 1970/71, where the batter averaged 154.80.
Shubman Gill’s recent run tally of 754 runs sits next to the legendary opener, while Sunil Gavaskar returns to feature on the list with 732 runs against the West Indies again in 1978/79. Yashasvi Jaiswal, back in 2023-24, also had a splendid series against England, where he amassed a total of 712 runs.
Virat Kohli next features in the list twice, with 692 runs in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia back in 2014/15 and the 655 runs against England in 2016/17.
Shubman’s run in the England series has been stunning as a debutant skipper
Shubman Gill has had the most splendid series as an Indian captain in England, as he has scored 754 runs in the five-match series against England on English soil. He started off his captaincy stint with his maiden SENA hundred, and by the end of the Test series, he now has 4 SENA hundreds to his name.
It was owing to his splendid 269 in the first innings at Edgbaston and the 161 in the second innings that led India to their maiden win at the iconic venue of Edgbaston in Birmingham, where the team had not won a single game on any previous occasion.
ALSO READ: “We would’ve crushed them…”: Suresh Raina’s open threat to Pakistan after boycotting WCL clash
