Shubman Gill's 207* fires India to record 400-run chase as Gambhir says 'it was batting, not cricket'

By the time the blue cover at the Guwahati stadium began to recede, the result was already a formality. Shubman Gill had just unfurled a three-in-one celebration after reaching his double-century, and the relentless run-scoring of the previous eight hours had satiated — even overstuffed — an Indian crowd that has grown used to a very different, very dominant one-day side.

It was running close to 10pm when Gill finally set his hair for the shutterbugs one last time, the capstone to an innings that absorbed a chase of more than 400 runs from start to finish. The aggregate across the two innings stood at 811, and on either side of that pile, bowlers had been numbed into submission.

A record chase, a familiar mismatch

The mismatch was best summed up by the head coach himself, who refused to lose the bigger picture in the euphoria of a record chase. “It was batting, it was not cricket,” Gautam Gambhir said. West Indies bowling coach Ravi Rampaul agreed on the surface: “nothing for the spinners, nothing for the quicks.”

On these pitches, Gill can bat in his sleep. The exactness of each stroke never seemed to lose shape or quality. Twice in five nights he had flipped the pages of a batting manual on the popping crease, and the Guwahati chase was the mightier of the two — needing a quicker start on a flatter, slightly slower wicket where one side was shorter than the other.

Before Gill, three others had already reeled off centuries, but he marched along quicker than the rest, the perfect union of calculation and attack. Against pace he kept his shape and played on the rise when the pitch offered ping; against wristspinner Vitel Lawes, who was not immediately easy to score off, Gill read early and adjusted. There was never an ugly hoick — just strokes that floated with poetic disdain, as they so often do under lights on a good surface.

'Every part of me is cramping right now'

Accomplishing a 400-run chase is not merely about the frequency of boundaries. It demands unshakeable concentration and the stamina to bat through without losing tempo. Deep into his innings, Gill had to be given stretches by the physio.

“Every part of me is cramping right now,” he said after the game. Yet even in the latter stages the ramrod stance did not break. At 207, after about 90 overs on the field and hindered by cramps, he wristily dispatched a six to midwicket with the ease of a finger flicking a matchstick.

Gill is now the only batter besides Rohit Sharma with multiple ODI double-hundreds, having partnered the senior opener through a 255-run opening stand. Rohit rode the bounce early of the tall opening trio, punished the erratic offerings of Keemo Paul, and picked his battles against the spinners. Virat Kohli could not go big, but even for the massive crowd with ‘18’ on their backs, a masterful chase meant no disappointment.

For the West Indies, John Campbell’s 65-ball century against India should have been the highlight of most careers; a quick scroll on the broadcaster’s app does not even list him among the night’s top highlights. Such is the era, and such is the mismatch.

The numbers, and the ceiling

Like any great ODI batter, Gill breaks targets into smaller parts. He aimed for 200-210 by the 25-over mark and ended 20 runs higher, overshadowing three very special first-innings efforts on the same flatbed. It is a pity, as the report notes, that the volume of matches will never let Gill compete with all-time great ODI tallies. He turned 27 this September; by that age Sachin Tendulkar had already crossed 10,000 runs in the format, having played nearly four times the number of matches. This June, Gill was the second-fastest to 3,000 ODI runs, 13 innings quicker than Kohli.

Even with that mismatched volume, Gill’s impact on the format is significant. But in celebrating his feats, the larger mismatch cannot be overlooked: bowlers were reduced to cannon fodder. And while pitches flatten almost everywhere, Gill’s consistency has come largely in and around home conditions. In the last three years he has played only three games in Australia (top score 24), has never played ODIs in South Africa, and goes to New Zealand having last visited in 2022 with one fifty in five games.

The next phase

Nothing takes away from Gill’s incredible display — a testament to his endurance and hunger. As ODI captain and the top-ranked batter in the world, he heads into the World Cup high on expectation, and yet to be tested by the fairer parity between ball and bat that other regions might offer.

A few ardent fans remained an hour and a half after Gill posed mid-stadium, helmet on bat, acknowledging cheers for his double ton. The decibels reignited when he emerged from the lobby to board the team bus, drawing a reception akin to the two other batting stars he often walks out with. On a day with little for bowlers to celebrate, Gill shone over four other centurions — control, range, and an unremitting appetite to commandeer a mammoth chase. As he keeps chasing new heights, his greatness will be defined not by volume of runs, but by how he performs when the odds are not so stacked against the bowlers.