On one gloomy day in Chandigarh before Shubman Gill came to England, England came to Shubman Gill. It was IPL time,Shubman Gill was leading the Gujarat Titans and having nets on what seemed like a ‘dicey’ pitch – some balls flying towards his face, others darting at his ribs. Shubman Gill would stop training, dump the white balls back in the kit bag, and ask for a shiny red new one, the kind used for Test matches. Even while playing IPL, Shubman Gill wasn’t missing a chance to be England-ready.
It was about a month before he was to take the most important flight of his life to Heathrow, London, for his first assignment as India’s Test captain at 25.
The pursuit of batting perfection has been Shubman Gill’s life goal since his wonder years in Punjab’s border town of Fazilka. His father, a landed farmer, would pay kids in the neighbourhood Rs 100 to bowl at his son all day. When in his teens, Shubman Gill knew that he could go back to tractors, fields and the family agriculture income, if cricket didn’t work out. Like many others around him, the batting prodigy didn’t lose sleep over the dilemma of academics or a career option. He would get up fresh with only cricket on his mind.
Shubman Gill would follow a punishing schedule, all through his Under-16 and Under-19 days, bat close to 6 to 8 hours every day. A typical day for him in Chandigarh, where he and his father moved from their village, would be about 3 to 4 hours of batting in the morning, a quick Amritsari lunch of patti or chhola kulcha, and again 3 to 4 hours of batting. Even when he made it to the Indian team, he was among the batsmen who batted the most at the nets.
Shubman Gill scales batting heights in England 2025
In England at the age 25, Shubman Gill seemed to have achieved that batting nirvana. India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has been watching him closely for the past several months, and he could notice a change.
Before the series, Shubman Gill’s highest Test score was his 128 against Australia in 2023. As if he was given a Midas touch along with the captain’s armband, everything that he touched in England has turned to gold. Between June 20 to July 6 – his fortnight of fortitude from the first to the third Test – Shubman Gill registered three higher scores: 147, 269, 161. This was like the Swedish pole-vaulter Mondo Duplantis clearing new heights every other day, raising the bar at will.
It was in Birmingham that Shubman Gill would find his Bodhi Tree, where he found enlightenment. In England, his 269 is being hailed as the most perfect knock he’s ever played. Data shows that epic innings had a false shot percentage of 3.5 – that’s the least for any innings in England since this statistic came into existence 20 years back.
Since geniuses like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Pointing, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli are on the list below Shubman Gill, the Birmingham innings is worthy to be framed in India’s batting Hall of Fame. The near-perfect 269 was the outcome of his long penance, after mulling over many dismissals. It lifted him to a higher level, elevated him to the spiritual state where “the body controls the mind” and the “mind tells itself to stay quiet.”
His grit and determination to excel impressed Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa who was in all in praise of this young sensational Indian skipper .
Robin Uthappa reflects that Shubman Gill has emerged out of age
Robin Uthappa has his fair share of opinion regarding Shubman Gill’s captaincy in the England series. Shubman Gill was appointed as the Indian Test skipper in the England series following the retirement of Rohit Sharma. While Robin Utthappa reckoned that a captain is as good as a team , he also believed that a skipper should rally his troops.
Robin Uthappa on Shubman Gill’s captaincy and highlighted that he was good at times , but also sometimes passive. However the former batter Robin Uthappa stated that Shubman Gill stated led the team well and would get better with time.
“There is a difference between being a captain and a leader. We’ve seen Shubman’s captaincy in this series. He’s been really good at some times and inactive or passive at some times. Over a period of time, he will tactically get better,” he said.
“As far as leadership is concerned, he is coming into his own since he started leading the Gujarat Titans. As a leader, he is leading the team well. He is not like a one-man thing,” he added.
The right handed batter Gill led from the front in the series with the bat too. He ended the series with a staggering 754 runs at an average of 75.40 in 10 innings inclusive of Four centuries including a career best 269 runs . Shubman Gill has impressed on his very first tour as India’s skipper.
It is the same pursuit of perfection that started from the border town. Life came full circle for Shubman Gill at The Oval. In a 2-2 verdict, it was tough to say if the runs brought the best out of his captaincy or the captaincy triggered an avalanche of runs.
Also Read: ENG vs IND : Shubman Gill Appointed Test Skipper For Red Ball