Shubman Gill hogged the limelight on Monday as he registered his maiden ODI, and international, hundred – a brilliant knock of 130 runs in 97 balls to carry India to the eventual total of 289 – vs Zimbabwe, in Harare.
Social media was flooded with praiseful and congratulatory tweets on Gill, many of them stating that his century for India was inevitable and that the experts have predicted this long before when in 2018 he was India’s main batsman in the triumphant Under-19 World Cup.
Shubman Gill scored this century today while batting at number 3; it was quite fitting that he did it at number 3 as he has long been touted as the successor of the batsman who holds that number 3 spot: Virat Kohli, who was rested from this Zimbabwe tour.
How old was Shubman Gill when Virat Kohli made his India debut?
Virat Kohli made his India debut on August 18, 2008, in an ODI vs Sri Lanka in Dambulla. Shubman Gill was born on September 8, 1999, in Punjab. So Gill was only 8 years and 11 months old when Kohli first donned Team India’s jersey.
Kohli had made into the Indian team straight after winning the under-19 World Cup in 2008. And Gill, too, followed the same route.
Shubman Gill rose through the ranks rapidly as a teenager and was drafted into India’s under-19 team for the 2018 Under-19 World Cup. He had, by then, already made his first-class and List-A debut for Punjab in 2017. In the under-19 World Cup, Gill finished as the second-highest scorer with 372 runs in 5 innings at an average of 124, and he bagged the Man of the Tournament award.
He made his ODI debut in 2019. But it was his much-awaited Test debut in 2020 in Australia that truly showed his class, temperament, and technique – when he scored 91 runs in the epic Gabba victory.
From thereon, barring injuries, Gill has been a regular part of the Test squad and now has made waves in ODI cricket too.
