Delhi: Shubman Gill has turned 25 and has had his birthday party but deep inside he is feeling the challenge of an even bigger ‘party’ that everyone is associating with his name. How long will Virat Kohli play and that is why among the names that are being discussed as the future big star of Team India, the most votes are for Shubman. Now the question is whether he was at such a stage on his 25th birthday that he could challenge Virat Kohli’s record at this age?
First, let’s look at Virat Kohli’s international cricket record on his 25th birthday (in 2013):
Test cricket: 1175 runs in 18 Tests at an average of 41.96 including 4 centuries
ODI: 4919 runs in 119 matches at an average of 51.78 and a strike rate of 88.49 with 17 centuries. The special thing is that till then he was number 10 in the run count for India and only Sachin Tendulkar (49) and Sourav Ganguly (22) had scored more 100 runs than him.
T20: 587 runs in 21 matches at an average of 34.53 and a strike rate of 130.44 with 4 half-centuries. Until then, no one had scored a 100 for India and only Rohit Sharma (5), Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh (7) were ahead of him in the count of scores of 50.
At present, Shubman’s international cricket career is at a very critical stage and he himself has accepted that he has not lived up to the expectations placed on him or the things written about him after seeing his talent. The biggest shortcoming in this is, not converting a good start into a big score and making his wicket cheap for the bowlers. The same thing happened in the Duleep Trophy and despite being the captain, he did not show the responsibility that the team needed from him. Now the next difficult test in this series is the series against Bangladesh and he should keep in mind that if he can be dropped from the T20 team due to instability, then there are many names to challenge him in Tests and ODIs as well. He is already out of his comfort zone as an opener in Tests.
Check out Shubman’s international cricket record on his 25th birthday:
Test cricket: 1492 runs in 25 Tests at an average of 35.52 including 4 centuries
ODI: 2328 runs in 47 matches at an average of 58.20 and a strike rate of 101.74 with 6 centuries
T20: 578 runs in 21 matches at an average of 30.42 and a strike rate of 139.27 with 1 century and 3 half-centuries
Test cricket gave Virat Kohli a special identity and he came in Fab 4 due to his Test record. Shubman has to understand this. India has to play 10 Tests in the coming few months and these can prove to be a special identity for his career. Shubman himself believes that the Test series against Bangladesh will be exciting. Now he bats at number 3 and in this he is scoring 20 and 30 runs, not big scores. In the 4-1 victory in the Test series against England this year, Shubman scored 452 runs in 9 innings at an average of 56.50 while batting at number 3 and if he can continue the same form, it will be good for the team as well.
There is no doubt that by his 25th birthday, Virat Kohli was on his way to becoming a big name in Test cricket and Shubman is far from that identity. All he needs is stability. It would not be right to compare them with Sachin Tendulkar because Sachin was a Test and ODI format player while Virat and Shubman are playing all three formats. If we talk about T20, then Shubman will have to regain his place in Team India in that.
