The last time a visiting skipper in England notched up a double century was Graeme Smith in 2003 and it led Nasser Hussain to fall on his sword mid-series. Smith – or “what’s-his-name” as Hussain called him beforehand – was a captain hunter on these shores, his South Africa team going on to account for Michael Vaughan in 2008 and then Andrew Strauss four years later.
Ben Stokes at least knew Shubman Gill’s name before this series and, in fairness, the England captaincy is unlikely to change hands in the next week. Nevertheless, Gill inflicted one of the toughest days of Stokes’ three years in charge as his chanceless and downright merciless 269 from 387 balls drove India to a position of dominance.
At stumps on the second evening, slow-cooked by India’s 587 all out from 151 gruelling overs, England had stumbled to 77 for three and the sleepy surface that served as the canvas for Gill’s artistry had fleetingly woken up. This is hardly uncommon when a fresh attack has a mountain of runs on the board. But the sight of Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj reducing the hosts to 25 for three up top was still quite the jolt.
Hard hands also played their part during a frenzied half hour as the lively Deep, in for the much-discussed Jasprit Bumrah, wiped out Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope for a pair of ducks in two deliveries. Duckett pushed to third slip, where Gill held a sparkler, while Pope ambitiously tried to whip one off his legs and edged to a juggling KL Rahul at first.
Once Zak Crawley sent another into the cordon with a wafted drive on 19, it left Harry Brook and Joe Root to see out proceedings and the pair just about survived to reach 30 and 18 not out respectively. Although for Brook this involved escaping a reviewed lbw on one thanks to umpire’s call and somehow using his shoulder to prevent the penultimate ball of the day from Prasidh Krishna ballooning back on to his stumps.
England’s top order needed to be more like Gill here. As Mark Butcher put it so neatly on air, perhaps the effortless charm by which he encouraged the ball to the rope 33 times should see him dubbed the Persuader. In an age of T20 hitters – Gill is no mug in that format, it should be said – the right-hander is all timing and grace; a back-foot game so wonderfully frictionless that MRF could probably be swapped for WD-40 on his bat stickers.
Gill was still on a baby hundred first thing, 114 not out as the tourists resumed on 310 for five. But by the time he walked off, accepting handshakes from his opponents and a standing ovation from a commendably engaged home crowd, he had turned it into a career-best daddy; the highest score by an India Test captain no less, surpassing the 221 that Sunil Gavaskar made in a famous near-miss at the Oval 46 years ago.
In that respect Gill had delivered on what he called his “biggest learning” after the defeat at Headingley. While the tail came under fire for two crepe-paper collapses – India responded by bolstering the lower order here – Gill was most annoyed with himself for holing out during India’s sub-par first innings in Leeds when set on 147. Presented with another benign surface this week, the 25-year-old was not going to repeat the mistake.
It no doubt helped that Stokes largely spared his seamers a flogging after an ominous morning in which India cruised to 419 for six. Chris Woakes was sent off to graze after an early burst alongside his captain, while Brydon Carse was once again in discomfort. England believed Carse’s struggles with a toe that buckles upon landing to have been solved by new insoles but all the signs here pointed to a recurrence.
The one frontline quick pushed through was Josh Tongue, who after a scattergun opening day picked up two wickets. There was a bit of heat before lunch, too, Ravindra Jadeja bounced out for 89 and thus 11 short of repeating the glorious Rajput sword dance that met his half century. Still, India’s No 7 had added 203 runs with Gill and showed his successor, Washington Sundar, that all Gill needed was support.
After staring down an early barrage from Tongue, Sundar did just that with a watchful 42 from 103 balls and as the afternoon wore on, another 145 runs were trowelled on to India’s pile. There was even the sight of Brook sending down five overs of his wrong-footed dobblers. And while these did produce an edge, England’s slips had long since scattered and all it meant was Gill bringing up his 250.
The bulk of the work was performed by Shoaib Bashir and after 45 overs of graft, the off-spinner at least finished with three wickets to show for it. More ominous for England, given they will be batting last on this surface, was the beauty from Root that gripped and castled Sundar. This pitch may be flat but that delivery, plus Deep’s burst with the new ball, means the hosts have a whole heap of work still to do.
