With two quick wickets down on the opening day of the Oval Test, it was time for Shubman Gill, the captain to take the stage. Under the cloudy skies of Oval, he went onto equal Sir Gary Sobers, the former West Indian star. Having started the Test with 722 runs, he needed just one more to get past Sobers to score the most runs by an away captain in a Test series played in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia).
The Indian skipper collected two runs on the sixth ball of his innings and in the process went past the former West Indies skipper.
The Caribbean great achieved his feat of 722 runs in the summer of 1966 in England. India lost their captain Shubman Gill due to a suicidal run out as intermittent rain allowed only six overs in the afternoon session on day one of the series deciding fifth Test against England on Thursday.
When rain returned to The Oval to halt the proceedings, India were 85 for three with Sai Sudharsan (28 batting off 84) and Karun Nair (0 off 8) in the middle.
A sudden downpour shortly before lunch caused the second session to start at 3 pm local time. Gill (21 off 35) played a copybook cover drive off Jamie Overton to get going after the break.
Having done all the hard work, Gill went for a needless single off Gus Atkinson who picked up the ball on the follow through and darted it into the stumps, leaving the Indian captain way out of his crease.