Shubman Gill, and the art of flying in cricket

In the recent Hollywood movie F1, Brad Pitt’s character talks about feeling like he’s flying when he’s racing in a car around the track. “Sometimes there’s this moment when I’m in the car when everything is peaceful and no one can catch me. In that moment, I’m flying.” Shubman Gill provided the cricketing equivalent on Day 2 of India’s second Test against England, when he Rolls-Royced his way to a mammoth 269 to give India a very real shot at squaring the series. When play ended on Thursday (July 3), England were 77 for 3 in reply to India’s 587.

Gill had started the day on 114. If he had made serene progress on Day 1, he was Zen Master on Day 2. Nothing troubled him. No bowler could ruffle him. No field setting could stop his runs. He was seeing the ball so well, it carried over to his slip catching too. England lost first-Test hero Ben Duckett to an excellent catch by Gill, in their third over.

“I thought that if I’m set, no matter how many runs I’m batting on, I cannot leave the match hanging. I learned from the last match that no matter how many runs I’ve scored, there can be a collapse,” Gill said. “If the bowler gets me out, okay. I wanted to make as few mistakes as possible.”

Gill also revealed that he had started prepping for Test cricket even when he was playing in the IPL.

“Towards the end of the IPL and before this series, I worked on my initial movement and my set-up,” Gill said. “The set-up for the IPL and white-ball cricket is very different. So I started preparing during the IPL itself, because I would get an edge in this series.

“It is difficult to switch between formats, especially the way T20 is played in the last four-five years. It’s easier to go from Tests to T20s. The other way round is more difficult. That is why I started training my mind and body in the IPL itself.”

That Gill still made 650 runs at a strike rate of 156 in IPL 2025 spoke to how finely he could plan his training. He was doing well in T20s while simultaneously preparing so that he could do well in Test cricket.

“Before this, I felt I was batting very well in Tests. But I was making only 30s and 40s. I was missing the peak concentration time that is needed,” he reflected. “Many people told me that if you focus too intensely, you can lose yourself. So I went back to my basics for this series. I started playing with the rhythm I had in my childhood. I wasn’t thinking of my score, I just wanted to play long. I wanted to go back to enjoying batting. Sometimes when you’re not getting runs, you focus too intensely and forget to enjoy batting and get obsessed with just scoring runs.”

While Gill went back to enjoying batting, the runs took care of themselves.

He rolled smoothly past landmark after landmark. His first double century came off a single after he hadn’t got the strike for 17 balls. He passed Sunil Gavaskar’s Test-best of 236 with an imperious six over midwicket. Five balls later, Sachin Tendulkar’s 248* was crossed with a half-streaky four past the keeper. And 13 balls after that, a quiet single took him past Virat Kohli’s 254*.

During this innings, Shubman Gill was flying. And he took India along with him for the ride.