Shubman Gill has become the first Indian captain to score a double century in England, surpassing a nearly 35-year-old innings by Mohammad Azharuddin.
On 199, Gill flicked Josh Tongue to fine leg and raised his hands in the air even before completing the run. Moments later, he lifted his helmet and bat in a familiar celebration. The India captain had reached a rare milestone—his maiden Test double hundred.
He reached the landmark on the second day of the Edgbaston Test against England, off 311 deliveries. It came in just his second match as Test captain. In the series opener at Headingley, which was his captaincy debut, Gill had also scored a century.
India played their inaugural Test match in June 1932 at Lord’s, England. In the 93 years since, no Indian captain had ever scored a double century on English soil—until now.
Gill is also the first captain from the subcontinent to score a double hundred in any SENA country (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia). The previous best was by Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan, who made 193 at Lord’s in 2011.
Until this innings, the highest Test score by an Indian captain in England belonged to Mohammad Azharuddin, who made 179 off 243 balls at Old Trafford in August 1990.
Only two other Indian batters had ever made double centuries in Tests on English soil—Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid. Gavaskar scored 221 in the fourth innings at The Oval in 1979, while Dravid made 217 at the same ground in 2002.
Gill has now surpassed both to claim the highest individual score by an Indian in England.
He is the sixth Indian captain to hit a double century in Tests. The others are Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, and Virat Kohli. Kohli leads the pack with seven double centuries—the most by any captain in Test history.
Of the six, only Kohli had previously scored a double century outside India—against the West Indies in Antigua in 2016.
At 25 years and 298 days, Gill is the second-youngest Indian captain to score a Test double century. The youngest was Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, who did it at 23 years and 39 days.
Gill’s double hundred is only the 11th by a captain in England (four by English captains and seven by visiting skippers). Only Graeme Smith was younger than Gill when he achieved the feat. The South African captain scored back-to-back double centuries in England in 2003—at Edgbaston and Lord’s—at just 22 years and 175 days.
Gill also has a double century in ODIs. He joins a select club of players who have double hundreds in both Tests and ODIs—Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle, and Rohit Sharma. But Gill is the first to achieve this milestone at the age of 25 or younger.
Even more impressively, Gill is just the third player in cricket history to score double centuries in both Tests and ODIs and a century in T20Is. The only others to do so are Chris Gayle and Rohit Sharma.
