Shubman Gill channels his 'childhood' instincts to smash record double century

Time of India

4 days ago

For
Shubman Gill
, the key to his historic double hundred at Lord's wasn't a new trick—but an old memory. The India skipper, who became the first Indian and Asian captain to score a Test double hundred in England, said returning to his childhood approach helped him rediscover his joy at the crease.
'In this series, I tried to go back to my basics. I tried to bat like I used to in my childhood. I didn't think about having reached 35-40 runs or about playing long innings. I just wanted to enjoy my batting,' Gill told the host broadcaster after smashing 269 off 387 balls.
His record-breaking innings powered India to 587 in the first innings of the second Test and broke multiple milestones along the way. It is now the
highest Test score by an Indian
on English soil, going past Sunil Gavaskar's 221 at The Oval in 1979, and also surpassed Virat Kohli's 254 as the highest by an Indian Test captain*.
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But behind the numbers was a cricketer who admitted he had lost something along the way.
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'Sometimes, when you aren't scoring runs fluently, you stop enjoying your batting. You focus too much on the need to score runs. I felt I had lost that in my batting. I was so focused that I wasn't enjoying my batting as much.'
Gill shared that post-IPL, he made technical changes to his game after a string of 30s and 40s without big conversions.
'Yes, absolutely. I think at the end of the IPL and before this series, I worked a lot on this,' he said.
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'I mainly worked on my initial movement and my setup. Before this, I felt my batting was going well. I was scoring 30-35-40 runs consistently in Test matches. But at some point, I was missing that peak concentration time. A lot of people say that when you focus too much, you sometimes miss your peak time.'
Gill, who captained
Gujarat Titans
in IPL 2025, began red-ball preparation during the IPL itself, anticipating the technical shift required for the England series.
'Because the IPL setup, the white-ball setup, and what I wanted to do there were very different. So I thought that if I started my preparation from then itself, it would give me an edge when the time for the series came.'
He admitted that switching formats isn't always smooth.
'It is very difficult. Especially with the way T20 is played nowadays… it's easy to go from T20 to T20, but coming back from T20 to Tests is a bit difficult because you have been practising one way with your team and your instincts are tuned to that.'
'Controlling that and repeatedly telling your mind and body to adapt is challenging. That's why I started training for Tests during the IPL itself.'
Recalling his conversation with team mentor
Gautam Gambhir
during tea on Day 1, Gill said:
'I came out and spoke to GG (Gautam Gambhir) Bhai. I told him, 'I'm not getting runs freely, even though I have a lot of shots in my armoury.' I also felt the ball was a bit soft… Still, my mindset was that if the wicket is good and I am set, no matter how long I bat, I shouldn't leave the match halfway.'
'In the last match, I learnt that under these conditions, there can be a collapse in the lower order at any time. So I tried to stay out there as long as I could.'
At stumps on Day 2, England were 77/3, with India's pace unit putting the visitors on top. Gill underlined the team's bowling strategy moving forward.
'I think once the ball gets a little old, it becomes difficult to take wickets. So, the more we consistently bowl in one area and frustrate their batsmen, the better it is for us.'
'We will try to make them score in only one area… I think our bowlers executed their plans really well.'
'(The pitch) doesn't have a lot for bowlers, but enough that if a batsman tries too hard, there are chances of getting out… We will try to frustrate them and not give them the opportunity to score.'\