Follow UsEver since Shubman Gill became the captain of the Indian team, things have been near-perfect for him, especially with the bat. He was at his absolute best in the match at Edgbaston against England, hitting 269 in the first innings and 161 in the second to show the class and finesse of his batting.
With the Shubman show in Shelby Town, one can only imagine seeing him breaking several records that even the great Virat Kohli couldn’t.
Virat Kohli played three Tests at Lord’s and, in six innings, he was not even able to score a fifty, let alone a century to get on the prestigious Lord’s honours board. In fact, only 10 Indians have been on the honours board for scoring a century and one of them, KL Rahul, is currently part of the Indian squad.
Gill, who has scored two centuries and a double century already in the four innings that he has played as captain in England, could become the 11th Indian batter to score a century at Lord’s and the first since Mohd Azharuddin in 1990 to do it as captain.
Gill has already tied the five-match series 1-1 and with Jasprit Bumrah available for two more matches, he and India could very well eye a series win to end an 18-year-old drought. India last won a Test series in England in 2007-08.
Kohli’s debut series as a full-time captain in SENA country (an abbreviated form used to combinely represent South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia in cricketing terms) was India’s tour of South Africa in 2017-18. India lost that series 1-2. His first assignment as captain in a SENA country was during India’s tour of Australia in 2014-15. However, he got the full-time captaincy after India had already lost the first two Tests.
Kohli had the golden chance to become the first Indian captain to win Test series in both England and Australia. However, Covid-19 turned out to be the villain. Leading the five-match series 2-1 after the end of four matches on their tour of England in 2020-21, India had to postpone the fifth match due to COVID-19. By the time they toured England again, Kohli was no longer the captain and India anyway lost the fifth match as the series ended in a 2-2 draw.
Gill, though, has a golden opportunity to get past Kohli for another record as he could win a Test series in England which the former couldn’t.