Follow UsThere’s this scene from Avengers: Infinity War, where Bruce Banner, aka the mighty Hulk, bows down in front of King T’Challa.
T’Challa responds with a simple ‘We don’t do that here.’
It was quite a similar tale in Birmingham, as Ben Stokes’ England, aka the mighty Bazball, bowed down to King Shubman Gill.
Gill responded with a simple ‘We do only that here.’
Everything before the series revolved around whether Gill had the ‘aura’.
Even the smallest thing was microscopically looked at, including his best sticker, which had the word ‘Prince’ alongside MRF. There were trolls over his voice, and over whether his Indian team would make 90 overs feel like ‘hell’.
All of this off the field. On the field as well, Gill’s CV was highly questioned, as he averaged under 25 in SENA conditions, with just two half-centuries. There were problems over his technique as well, given that the in-ducker always got the better of him.
In short, Gill seemed like a marshmallow ready to be roasted from all corners. The weather, too, felt like it would support a thorough barbecue party. All of this for India’s generational talent, who wasn’t even sure of a starting place in India’s last away tour to Australia.
Even thinking of being in Gill’s shoes is painful, forget living in that size 10.
But the thing about any discourse in India, not just cricket, is that everything is extreme. One day you are the worst captain in Indian history, and the next, you are the Greatest of All Time. So, what was Gill, today?
The latter, and rightfully so.
It took Gill just two Tests as a captain to set multiple records ablaze, forgetting just setting them.
When he lifted his helmet and later his bat for the first time at Headingley, you could see the aura in his eyes, albeit it being in quite a different fashion. Even his dismissal, when he was on 147, seemed like it was the right move – an aggressive sweep shot off Shoaib Bashir’s bowling.
But not for Gill, who blamed himself for playing the wrong shot.
"When we were batting, I felt I could have, now looking back at it… the kind of shot I played, I felt I could have batted a little bit more, added another 50 runs with Rishabh [Pant],” Gill said before the second Test at the press conference.
Perspective.
Another 50 runs from there in the first innings would have put India in the drivers' seat. Gill knew it. Gill was aware of it, and maybe in his dream, eight days between the two Tests, he would have thought about it a thousand times. What if?
Well, now that what if has become a reality. During the second Test between India and England, here in Birmingham, Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara emphasised the need for Indian batters to convert those hundreds into a big score, and completely bat the opponents out of the clash.
And so Gill did. On day one of the second Test, Gill gave the English bowlers no chance whatsoever, with a ton that will go down as one of the best centuries from any batter on English soil, with a 96% control percentage. 114 runs of pure bliss on day one.
It wasn’t job done, however. It was rather the start of a bigger task at hand, converting that start into a substantial score.
First, Gill batted; then, he out-batted; and finally after that, he ensured that England were forced to bowl Harry Brook in the clash. If you were wondering, Brook, in his entire Test career, had only bowled a total of 16 overs before today. Very often in England, over the last two years, no batter had batted this long that the hosts were forced to throw the ball to Brook.
Even more so when you look at how Stokes and Bazball have found solutions at their own will. By hook or crook, by bowling bouncers or negative line, pacers or spinners, they were good at that one thing: problem solving. But never in this innings, not once in nearly 400 deliveries, could you point out an instance saying ‘Ah, Bazball has a solution,’ because Gill was always two steps ahead.
"I think he's been amazing the way he's batting. It's just incredible to see him bat, and as a captain, also, he's been amazing. I think he's very clear in his head what he needs to do with the team, and we are very confident about what we are going to do. So, yeah, we are just trying our best,” Jaiswal said of Gill after day one.
Whatever England threw, he wasn’t just ready; he was ready with numerous options, one more attacking than the other. Even when it looked like the runs were drying at one point, when Washington Sundar walked out to bat, Gill pressed on the accelerator and pounced upon every single opportunity.
Once he went past the 150-run mark, the run flowed (not kidding), as the Indian skipper smashed his next 110 runs off 102 deliveries, striking at 107.84.
“Take a bow @ShubmanGill! Making it look so easy on the big stage! Well played and well deserved double century, an example of being unstoppable when the intent is clear,” Yuvraj Singh, Gill’s mentor, tweeted.
12 fours, three sixes. It was absolute carnage from Gill as Stokes and his Bazballers could only watch and wonder, 'Maybe we shouldn’t have woken the beast up'. For once the beast was up, they were beaten down.
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You know what’s the most amusing thing about Gill’s knock?
The ease with which he was breaking all the records. If you had asked anyone before this clash whether they saw a dozen records being broken in this fashion, the answer would have been a NO!
But that is why they poster-boyed Gill in the first place.
They knew that he was going to achieve amazing things. But for all of those amazing things to come within the first two Tests as a captain is almost unfathomable. 269 runs of pure class.
Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and now Shubman Gill. The baton passes on.