Shubman Gill

Shubman Gill, born on September 8, 1999, is a right-handed batsman who currently opens for India in test cricket. He represents Punjab in domestic cricket and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL.

His favorite cricketers are stalwarts, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. His hobby is Swimming. He is a highly superstitious person and keeps a red handkerchief in his pocket while batting.

He did his schooling in Manav Mangal Smart School in Mohali, Punjab. His Nicknames are “Shubbu/Shubbi”.

Renowned for his lazy elegance and effortless Strokeplay, Gill is seen as the next big thing in Indian Cricket and came into the limelight on the back of his majestic performances in the 2018 Under 19 World cup.

Family

Shubman Gill hails from a family of four members that includes himself, his father Lakhwinder Singh Gill (An Agriculturist), his mother Kirat Gill, and his elder sister Shahneel Kaur Gill.

His father had dreamt of becoming a cricketer himself and hence he observed Shubman’s obvious cricketing talent right away. On the farm, he hired help to throw balls at Shubman to help him get batting practice and develop his batting skills. Convinced of his batting ability, his father decided to have the family move to Mohali near the PCA stadium.

Gill’s father realized his son’s love for cricket from the age of three when Shubman would never ask for anything but a bat and ball and would sleep with them.

Early age cricket and Under 19 Cricket World cup

Shubman Gill was selected in the Under 16 Punjab Cricket team at the age of 11. On debut, he hit a magnificent unbeaten double century in the Vijay Merchant Trophy.

In his first domestic series, he was the highest scorer with 330 runs in 5 matches. In 2014, he also scored 351 runs in Punjab’s inter-district U-16 tournament where he shared a record 587 run opening partnership with Nirmal Singh. In the 2013-2014 season, he was awarded the MA Chidambaram Trophy for “Best Under sixteen cricketers” by the BCCI.

He made his List A debut for Punjab in the 2016-17 Vijay Hazare trophy and his first-class debut in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy later in 2017. He went on to score his maiden first-class century in his second match against Services.

He was also part of India’s Under 19 team that won the series against England’s Under 19 team in February 2017. Following this, he was named as the vice-captain of the Indian team for the 2018 Under 19 World cup. He ended the tournament with 372 runs at a stunning average of 124 and a strike rate of 112 as India grandly won the World cup.

He played a match-winning knock of 102 against arch-rivals Pakistan in the semifinals setting up India’s 272 on a tricky surface and was also named the Player of the tournament for his solid performance throughout the tournament. He was also named “The Rising Star of the Squad” by the ICC for his world cup exploits.

Before the start of the World cup, he was picked by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2018 IPL Auction and made his T20 debut in April 2018 for KKR. Batting predominantly at number 6 or 7, Gill had a promising start to his IPL career, aggregating 203 runs in 13 matches at a healthy average of 33.83 and a strike rate of 146.

Later in the year 2018, he was selected to India C’s squad for the Deodhar Trophy, and in the final league match against India A, he made an unbeaten century to guide India C to the finals. Following this, Gill scored his maiden double century (268) in first-class cricket against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy.

He followed this up later in the month with a swashbuckling 148 of 154 that almost enabled Punjab to chase 338 runs from just 57 overs against Hyderabad before eventually ending in a draw. By the start of 2019, Gill had amassed a total of 990 runs across 8 matches and scored his 1000th run by the fifteenth innings of his first-class career.

He ended up as the leading run-scorer for Punjab in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy with 728 runs in just 5 matches and also won the Emerging player of the tournament in the 2019 IPL. Later in the year, he also became the youngest player to captain a side in the Deodhar Trophy at 20 years and 57 days beating Virat Kohli’s record.

With a beginning very few players have had in all formats of the game in the domestic circuit, a highly successful Indian career was anticipated by most experts and fans for this youngster very soon.

Debut in Indian Cricket Team

Shubman Gill was selected to the Indian ODI squad for the series in New Zealand in January 2019. He made his debut in the fourth ODI of the series but made just 9 runs as India was beaten by New Zealand.

He was then selected to the Indian test squad for the home series against South Africa and the squad that was touring New Zealand in early 2020 but couldn’t break through to the final playing eleven.

He finally made his test debut for India in the Boxing Day test match against Australia in December 2020. It was the second of four tests with India trailing 0-1 in the series. On a sticky wicket, Australia made just 195 in their first innings and India had few nervy overs remaining to play out Day 1.

Coming out to open the batting, Shubman Gill took an ultra-positive approach against arguably the best bowling attack in the world on their home conditions and kickstarted India’s comeback in the series with a good-looking 65 ball 45 that was the architect of India’s first-innings total of 326.

He followed it up with an unbeaten and quickfire 35 in a tricky run chase of 70 in the fourth innings to steer India to a series-leveling victory. Gill’s debut performance against the top-class pacers of Australia and the ease with which he handled them put the cricketing world on notice.

Breakthrough Inning

Shubman Gill made a promising start to his Indian test career in the Border Gavaskar trophy 2020-21 with a couple of good-looking and confident knocks on his debut in the second test of the series. With the series level, Gill made his maiden Test half-century in the first innings of the pivotal 3rd test at Sydney.

He followed that up with another good contribution of 31 in the fourth innings where he saw off the new ball enabling India to salvage a draw on Day 5.

With the series nodded at one apiece, the final test at Brisbane saw India being set an improbable target of 329 to chase down on the final day of the test. Losing fellow opener Rohit Sharma early, Gill was expected to let his guard down and ensure India drew the test to avoid series defeat.

However, a confident Gill counter-attacked some of the best fast bowlers in the world on a pacy Gabba wicket and made a breathtaking 91 of just 146 balls, and shared a match-turning 114 run partnership with Pujara that set up India’s most famous test series win of this era.  India eventually chased down the 329 losing 7 wickets in the waning stages of the final session on Day 5 and the celebrations for one of the greatest underdog stories in sports began. Gill played some of the most fluent shots of the front and back foot with utmost ease that took even the Australian commentators by surprise and made them proclaim Gill as the next big thing in Indian cricket.

This innings with the team’s back against the wall facing the best bowling attack on their fortress at the Gabba will certainly go down as one of the greatest performances by someone in his debut series. This became Gill’s breakthrough inning that made the cricketing world take note of possibly the next great batsman in the coming years.

Future in Cricket

Shubman Gill has had a great domestic career to date and was the player of the tournament in the Under 19 World cup. He then progressed to have a great start in the IPL winning the emerging player award.

While his ODI debut didn’t go to plan, his test debut series was one for the ages as he played the Aussie pacers at ease in their conditions and scored in nearly every innings culminating with the ultimate match-winning 91 on the final day of the series that helped India win one of its most famous away test series.

With a start very few can dream of at such a young age, Gill is at the forefront of the next generation of special Indian cricketers that are expected to drive the country to great heights in the future. Gill is one of the few that is expected to dominate all formats of cricket in years to come. The future is bright for this young man who has excelled in all forms of cricket so far in the domestic circuit and has made a rollicking start to test cricket for India.