Let’s start with the most impressive of all Gill stats: he has the second-best one-day international batting average of all time (59), sandwiched between the Netherlands’ Ryan ten Doeschate (67), who is on the India coaching staff for this tour, and Kohli (58) himself.
Maybe it’s unfair to draw comparisons in Test cricket just yet, but there’s no denying 25-year-old Gill is following in a rich lineage of Indian cricket batting greats.
And this is where he doesn’t quite live up to his lofty billing. His Test batting average of 35 lags behind Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rohit Sharma and Kohli at the same stage of their career.
In fact, it’s significantly behind Dravid and Tendulkar, who were both averaging the widely accepted world-class mark of 50 by their 32nd Test.
But while Tendulkar – the most prolific international batter of all time –, external was just 16 when he made his Test debut, Gill was younger than both Kohli and Dravid when given his chance in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG in 2020.
The signs were good for Gill when he averaged almost 52 in three Tests in Australia as India lifted the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Dips in form and an injury in England in the summer of 2021 followed, but Gill’s trajectory was heading only one way.
His first Test century came in Bangladesh in 2022, before a career-best 128 against Australia in Ahmedabad in 2023 preceded two centuries against England on their tour of India in early 2024.
“There was a phase where I got 40s or 50s,” said Gill, speaking in 2023. “So I felt that I was being overly defensive after getting set. That isn’t my game. When I get set, I catch my rhythm.
“I’d rather accept being dismissed while going for a shot. It wasn’t acceptable to me that I got out while trying to adapt to a style which didn’t come naturally to me. All of my dismissals in this period were off defensive shots.”
So has Gill been more positive in recent years?
Yes: in short, he’s playing more attacking shots and leaving the ball less.
