India vs England: Shubman Gill reveals Gautam Gambhir’s role in his double ton at Edgbaston

The second day of the Edgbaston Test bore witness to the brilliance of India's new Test skipper. Looking to level the series in the second India vs England Test, the visitors were rattled early in the contest. Put in to bat first in Birmingham, India lost five wickets on the opening day. The onus fell on Shubman Gill to pull his team out of that puddle as he got going against the hosts. After losing Rishabh Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy quickly, Gill found a stable partner in Ravindra Jadeja, and the pair curbed the loss of wickets with a 99-run partnership on Day 1. The skipper, meanwhile, reached his maiden century. Gill came out to bat on Day 2 with unshakable determination and eyes set on the prize. Showing unmatched accuracy in his shots, the skipper charged to his maiden Test double ton at Edgbaston.

Shubman Gill talks about the advice from Gautam Gambhir that helped him score a double ton in the Edgbaston Test

Shubman Gill etched his name into the history books with a monumental performance in Birmingham by the end of Day 2 of the second India vs England Test. With a commanding first-innings total of 587 on the board, India had England on the back foot, a dominant position built around Gill’s sensational 269. The 25-year-old's stand is now the highest score by an Asian captain on English soil. The young skipper, meanwhile, was quick to attribute a key part of his success to head coach Gautam Gambhir.

After marking his second straight century in his first series as Test captain on Day 1 of the second India vs England Test at Edgbaston, Shubman Gill continued to grind England’s bowling attack down. His masterclass not only exposed the risk in England’s decision to bowl first on a batter-friendly pitch, but also made him the first Asian captain to hit a double ton in a Test match in England. His eventual 269-run marathon became the best first-class score of his career, edging past the 268 he scored for Punjab against Tamil Nadu in the 2018-19 domestic season.

However, despite the ease with which he eventually accelerated, Gill admitted that the innings didn’t start as smoothly. In a conversation at the end of Day 2, the Indian captain shared that during his initial stint of 40 runs in the second session of Day 1, he struggled to find the boundary. A timely discussion with Gambhir during the Tea break, Gill revealed, helped recalibrate his mindset, a turning point that sparked what became a knock to remember.

"Yesterday, when I went out to bat, which came around lunchtime on Day 1, at Tea, by which I had scored around 35-40, I spoke to GG bhai, telling him that I found it difficult getting boundaries and I was missing out on a lot of opportunities," Gill admitted.

"The ball, by then, had turned soft, but I could not score runs as freely as in the first Test. But I had just one aim that I would not let go of it. If there was one learning for me from the previous game, it was that there could be a collapse at any time in the game. So my mindset was to make as few errors as possible," he said.