India opener Shubman Gill continued his recent record-making spree, becoming the youngest men’s cricketer to score hundreds in all three formats of the game on Wednesday. At 23 years and 146 days, he accomplished the feat against New Zealand in the third T20I at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
With his scintillating 126 not out off 63 balls against the Black Caps, Shubman Gill also joined a select band of Indian players who have made hundreds across all formats. Before him, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, and KL Rahul were the only Indians to reach the milestone.
Gill is also the youngest Indian batter to hit a T20I hundred, going past Suresh Raina’s previous mark, who achieved the landmark in 23 years and 156 days.
If this wasn’t enough, Shubman Gill added another feather to his cap as he leapfrogged Virat Kohli to have the highest score by an Indian in T20Is. The former India captain scored an excellent 122 off 61 balls against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup in September last year.
The youngster was positive from the outset as he cracked boundaries early on in his innings before clobbering Lockie Ferguson for 11 runs in an over.
Thereafter, he went berserk as he began dealing in boundaries and sixes. But Shubman Gill’s all-out assault on the New Zealand bowlers only after he completed his half-century and Rahul Tripathi and Suryakumar Yadav went back to the pavilion after scoring 44 off 22 and 24 off 13 balls respectively.
Gill struck back-to-back sixes against Benjamin Lister, before smashing two more maximums against Blair Tickner to cruise into the 90s. He brought up his maiden T20I century with a powerful cover drive off Lockie Ferguson and collected another 17 runs in the 19th over to take India past the 200-mark. The Men in Blue eventually finished with a huge total of 234/4.
With Gill making history in Ahmedabad, netizens hailed him on social media. Some fans went as far as to say that he’s the future of Indian cricket, while others compared him with the talismanic Virat Kohli.
The fans’ praise of Gill came amid rising criticism of his play in T20Is, with 2011 World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir blasting him for his failures in the previous two games of the series against New Zealand. The Fazilka-born cricketer managed to score only 7 off 6 balls and 11 off 9 deliveries in Ranchi and Lucknow respectively.
Moreover, with the explosive Prithvi Shaw warming the bench, Gautam Gambhir urged the Indian think tank, featuring captain Hardik Pandya and head coach Rahul Dravid to drop Shubman Gill from the XI in T20Is.
According to Gautam Gambhir, Shubman Gill’s natural game isn’t suited to T20s and hence, it would be more appropriate to try Prithvi Shaw in the format.
“I feel Shubman Gill has to get better against spin, on a spinning wicket. He had his struggles against Bangladesh as well. Yes, he has been fabulous in the 50-over format, got good wickets to bat on, with 5 fielders inside, But then, you’ve got to get better when the ball starts spinning, gripping and bouncing as well. He will get tested, not only against seam but spin as well,” Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports.
“He still hasn’t found his feet in T20 format, when it comes to playing international cricket. Sometimes you have to play at a different tempo. His basic game suits 50-over format. Someone like Prithvi Shaw, his basic instinctive game is made for T20 cricket. Shubman Gill is someone whose basic game is made for 50-over format. How quickly he learns and adapts to this format will decide whether he will be able to play all the three formats,” Gautam Gambhir asserted.
However, with his blistering knock against the Black Caps in Gujarat, Shubman Gill proved that he could perform in the shortest format of the sport too.
Earlier, this month, he became the youngest player to hit a double hundred in One-Day Internationals (ODIs).
The Punjab-born cricket star’s feat came against New Zealand in Hyderabad in the first ODI of the three-match series after he played a stunning knock, scoring 208 runs off just 149 balls.
