Shubman Gill is proving his doubters wrong and how!
The young Indian opener, made history on Wednesday by becoming the youngest Indian batter to score a T20I hundred.
This epic moment occurred during the third game against New Zealand at Ahmedabad.
Despite not having a great start to his T20I career, with an average of 15.20 and a strike rate of 128.81 in his first five games, Gill silenced his critics with a stunning 126* off 63 balls, the highest score by an Indian in the T20I format.
He is also the seventh Indian men’s player to achieve triple-digits in T20Is.
Gill’s innings was a display of aggressive batting, marked by 12 fours and seven sixes.
He scored his runs at a strike rate of 200. He began the innings with a bang, reaching 19 off his first 12 deliveries and hitting three fours off Blair Tickner’s first over, setting the tone for the rest of the innings.
He reached his next fifty in only 19 deliveries and scored 76 runs in his last 28 balls.
Although he lost his opening partner Ishan Kishan early on, Gill combined with Rahul Tripathi (44 off 22) to give India a strong start in the powerplay.
Gill later combined with skipper Hardik Pandya to carve out a 103-run partnership and take India beyond 200.
Gill has now scored a century in all three senior international formats, to go with a century at the Under-19 World Cup.
He has been in incredible form in the One Day Internationals, where he scored 112 against Sri Lanka and 208 and 112 against New Zealand.
India’s star batter, Virat Kohli, reacted to Gill’s maiden T20I hundred against New Zealand and hailed him as a future superstar, calling him a “Sitara”.
On his Instagram, Kohli shared a message for the Indian opener, saying, “The future is here.”
Previously, the highest score in T20I by an Indian batter was by Kohli himself, who smashed 122* against Afghanistan during the Asia Cup last year in September.
At 23 years and 146 days old, Gill is the youngest batter to have a century in each format of the sport.
He is also the fifth batter to have centuries for India in all formats of the game, joining Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Kohli.
Gill’s unbeaten 126, followed by an all-round performance from captain Hardik Pandya, helped India bundle out New Zealand for 66, resulting in a mammoth 168-run victory for India in the third and final T20I of the three-match series.
This win clinched the series for India, 2-1.
Daryl Mitchell was the top scorer for New Zealand with 35 in 25 deliveries.
Pandya starred with both bat and ball, scoring 30 off 17 and scalping 4 wickets, conceding just 16 runs in his spell of 4 overs.
India 234 for 4 (Gill 126*, Tripathi 44, Pandya 30) beat New Zealand 66 (Mitchell 35, Pandya 4-16, Malik 2-9, Mavi 2-12, Arshdeep 2-16) by 168 runs
