Birmingham, Jul 03: A record breaking doubled hundred from captain Shubman Gill put India in firm control of the second Test against England as they coasted to 564 for seven at tea on day two here on Thursday.
At the break, England had run out of ideas to stop Gill (265 batting off 380 balls), who forged a 144-run alliance with Washington Sundar (42 off 103).
The pitch remains flat and it would be a challenge for an inexperienced Indian bowling attack to take 20 wickets.
The friendly batting conditions, however, doesn’t take the sheen away from Gill’s epic double.
For someone who had expressed his desire to be the best batter of the series, he is well on course to meet his target after becoming the first Asian captain to score a double hundred in England.
In the Indian context, he surpassed the great Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid to log the highest individual score by an Indian batter in England.
Beyond the numbers, what makes Gill’s feat remarkable is that the high profile series is his first as Test captain.
He has also made the number four his own following the retirement of Virat Kohli.
Having hardly put a foot wrong with the bat, Gill also ensured that India did not cede the advantage to England from a strong position like they had done in Leeds in the series opener.
With England short ball ploy not working and Shoaib Bashir being taken to the cleaners by Gill, England brought part timers Harry Brook and Joe Root in a desperate attempt.
The skipper collected five boundaries off Brook while Sundar held his ground at the other hand.
The left-hander, who has played ahead of Kuldeep Yadav, was peppered by some short stuff from Josh Tongue before deciding to take the bait and pulling him over fine leg.
Gill was stuck on 199 for a while but the moment finally arrived when Gill pulled Tongue for a single towards fine leg.
His celebrations showed how much the effort meant to him, getting applauded by the opposition and the England fans.
Against the run of play, Root came to England’s rescue going through the defence of Sundar who played the wrong line.
In the morning session, England pacers were not able extract much from the surface on day two as Gill and Ravindra Jadeja (89 off 137) made the most of ideal batting conditions with a 203-run stand off 279 balls.
India added 109 runs to the total in 25 overs after resuming the day at 310 for five.
England had resorted to the short ball plan against Gill and Jadeja but that did not work the major part of the morning session.
Tongue finally got the much needed breakthrough late in the session with a short ball that Jadeja could not control to be caught by wicket-keeper Jamie Smith.
Amid bright sunshine at Edgbaston, Jadeja resumed his innings with a crisp backfoot punch through the cover and a cut off Stokes.
Gill got his first boundary of the day in third man region before cover driving Chris Woakes.
It was surprising to see Gill play the reverse sweep off spinner Bashir.
Later in the session, Gill also swept Bashir for a six behind square. Jadeja too got into the act and stepped out to smash Bashir for a maximum over mid on.
Stokes set an interesting field when Sundar joined Gill in the middle, employing a leg slip and two close in fielders on the leg-side.
The extra bounce that Tongue was able to generate posed an immediate threat to Sundar. PTI
