Shubman Gill scored another strong hundred in the fourth Test match against England at Old Trafford. He made 103 runs and now has four centuries in four matches as captain. With this, he has tied the record held by Don Bradman for the most hundreds by a captain in one Test series. Gill also became the first captain to hit four centuries in his debut Test series.
Gill began the day at 87 runs. During the innings, a ball from Ben Stokes jumped off the pitch and hit his already injured right thumb. The ball then struck his helmet. Even after the hit, Gill stayed calm and focused. He kept batting and soon reached his hundred. He became the first Indian to score a Test century at Old Trafford in 35 years. The last Indian to do it was Sachin Tendulkar in 1990. Gill also joined Virat Kohli and Sunil Gavaskar on the list of Indians with the most centuries in one Test series.
This century was also his slowest ever. He took 228 balls to score it. His previous slowest century was from 199 balls, which he made in the first Test match of the series at Edgbaston.
In that same Edgbaston match, Gill had scored two centuries — 269 and 161 — making a total of 430 runs in the match. That is the second-highest number of runs scored by a player in one Test match in history.
Gill finally got out after trying to hit a wide ball from Jofra Archer. He edged it and was caught by Jamie Smith. India’s score was 223/4 after that, and they were still 88 runs behind England.
India also lost vice-captain Rishabh Pant to a foot injury after he was hit by a yorker from Chris Woakes in the first innings. Now, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar have to build a big partnership to save the game. Their goal is to stay at the crease, score runs, and help India avoid a loss by getting a draw.