Shubman Gill finally scored his first Test century after three years of trying. Given the talent, the young cricketer has, he hasn’t been particularly lucky in scoring international cricket centuries.
Despite performing well and often coming close, it took Shubman Gill three years to score his first international century.
He finally achieved this milestone when he hit a 130 against Zimbabwe in an ODI in August. However, his century drought continued in Test cricket until India vs Bangladesh’s first Test in Chattogram, where he finally scored his first Test century on Day 3 of the match.
It was Gill’s expression when he finally reached the milestone that was one of relief and joy. He is not known for being particularly vocal, but he raised his bat to the dressing.
After dancing down the track to hit off-spinner Mehidy Hasan for a one-bounce four to get to his maiden Test hundred, all Gill did was, calmly raise his bat to the dressing room and bow to the likes of Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul who were all smiles and clapping.
Shubman Gill and hundreds don’t go along too well in international cricket. He does all the right things in every format, gets a half-century, and gets to the 70s and 80s but the magical three-figure mark eludes him more often than not.
Gill’s inning was impressive, especially considering that Bangladesh was missing a couple of key bowlers due to injuries. He dominated spin bowlers, Mehidy Hasan and Taijul Islam, hitting three sixes and 10 fours and scoring 110 runs at a strike rate of 72 before being caught in the deep while trying to hit Hasan for another six.
Gill’s attacking century helped set up India for a declaration at the end of Friday, setting Bangladesh a huge target of 513 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara also contributed with a century, his fastest Test hundred off 130 balls.
