Shubman Gill scores a brilliant Double Hundred against New Zealand | New Zealand vs India
Opening the innings has always been a challenging task for the batters in Cricket. The ball is still new, the bowlers come out and attack you. There are close-in catching fielders. The probability of getting out is very high when you open the batting. However, the Indian openers have completely changed the way cricket is viewed by the world.
Indian batsmen know only one way. For them, opening the innings is a way of showing to the world what they are capable of and what they can achieve. Shubman Gill opened the innings for India in the 1st ODI match against New Zealand and scored his first ever double hundred in ODI cricket.
It is worth mentioning that this double hundred of Shubman Gill came almost a month after Ishan Kishan’s double century against Bangladesh.
History of Double Centuries in ODI Cricket | Shubman Gill 200 New Zealand vs India ODI Series | New Zealand tour of India 2023
The Indian batsmen take opening as an opportunity to stay at the crease for 300 balls and score as many runs as they can. That is the reason why 7 out of the 10 double hundreds in One Day Cricket have been scored by Indian Openers. Sachin Tendulkar was the first Indian batter to score a double century when he broke the 200 run barrier against South Africa in 2010.
In 2011, Sachin’s fellow opener Virender Sehwag opened the innings against West Indies and scored his first ever double hundred. This was followed by the era of Rohit Sharma, in which he scored three double hundreds against Sri Lanka and Australia.
Rohit Sharma broke the 200 run barrier in 2013 when he scored 209 runs against Australia. By then, Virender Sehwag’s record of 219 runs was the highest individual score in ODI Cricket.
In the following year, Rohit Sharma bettered the record by scoring an unbelievable 264 runs against Sri Lanka. He became the first man on the planet to score 250+ runs in an ODI game.
Rohit did not stop with two double centuries. In the next series against Sri Lanka, Rohit Sharma scored another double hundred to make it 3 double centuries to his name.
This was followed by a period of drought where no Indian batter scored any double hundreds. And, then Ishan Kishan broke the shackles last month when he became the fourth Indian batter to score a double hundred in One Day Cricket. Ishan Kishan smashed the bowlers to all corners of the ground as he scored 210 runs against Bangladesh in the 3rd One Day Match of the series.
A month later, Shubman Gill also replicated the heroics by bringing up his double century against New Zealand. The first ODI match between India and New Zealand became a run fest due to Shubman Gill’s innings. Shubman scored 208 runs for India. India finished with a total of 349 runs.
This shows how Shubman nearly scored 65% of India’s runs. No other Indian batter scored a half century. Shubman was the lone warrior for India as he took India to a respectable 349 run total.
India won the match by 12 runs after dismissing New Zealand for 337 runs. Shubman Gill was declared the player of the match.
