Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill in Test Cricket (Source: AFP)
India have started a new era in Test cricket under the leadership of Shubman Gill, and the young man has led from the front on the tough tour of England. His stunning batsmanship helped India win the Edgbaston Test, and overall, he amassed 754 runs in the series.
Shubman Gill Starts Off His Test Captaincy Journey On A Bright Note
The second-leading run-scorer of the series is Joe Root, who has 217 runs less than Gill, and it speaks a lot about the kind of impact the Indian captain made in the series. His captaincy and the passion on the field were also spot on, and India managed to level the series, a feat that the young team would be pretty proud of.
Thus, Shubman Gill was rightly named the Player of the Series, and with it, he has joined two legendary Indian captains. Before Gill, only Virat Kohli and Mohammed Azharuddin were the two full-time Indian captains who had Player Of The Series Awards (Test Cricket) in their kitty.
Virat Kohli won the Player of the Series award on the 2018 tour when India lost the series 1-4. The Indian captain stood tall amidst the struggles of other batters and scored 593 runs in that series. Mohammed Azharuddin, on the other hand, won the Player of the Series award in 1990 when he scored 426 runs in a three-match series where the scoreline was in favour of England by 1-0.
Full-Time Indian Captains to Win Player of the Series Award in England (Tests):
- 1990 - Mohammed Azharuddin
- 2018 - Virat Kohli
- 2025 - Shubman Gill
It shows that batting has always been difficult in India, and very few Indian captains have been able to step up over the years. This time around, pitches were more conducive for batting, and Shubman Gill made sure that he not only got a hundred, but converted it into a big one, which helped the young team post some massive scores throughout the series.
