Yet to turn 27, India captain Shubman Gill is one of the greatest batters in the history of men’s ODIs.
The monstrous ODI numbers of Shubman Gill
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are bonafide ODI legends, both of whom have led Gill in the format. The giant shadows of the illustrious duo has often put Gill in the background. Yet, he has carved out a niche of his own in the format.
In ODIs, Gill has 3,271 runs at 60.57, the best average for anyone with even 2,000 runs in the format. In fact, even if one reduces the cut-off to a mere 300 runs, only Matthew Breetzke (706 runs at 64.18) has a better average among Full Member batters.
An average of 50 is often considered the benchmark for elite batters. Only nine batters have 3,000 ODI runs while averaging 50. That list includes ODI titans like Kohli, Michael Bevan, MS Dhoni, and AB de Villiers; and contemporary ODI greats like Babar Azam, Joe Root, Shai Hope, and KL Rahul. All of them are, as mentioned above, behind Gill on the averages chart. In fact, Kohli (14,802 at 58.50) is the only one to average even 54.
But it does not end there. In this set of nine elite batters, Gill also has the best strike rate (101.2). De Villiers (101.1) is marginally behind him, but no one else has struck at 95.
Of Gill’s runs, 1,868 have come in India, at 66.71, the second-best home average for anyone with a 1,000-run cut-off. Only Desmond Haynes (2,573 at 67.71) is above him.
In 2023, Gill scored 1,584 runs at 63.36 and 105.5. In the 21st ccentury, Matthew Hayden is the only one to have scored more ODI runs in a calendar year (1,601 at 59.29 and 89.3 in 2007). Hayden’s year, 2007, also featured the inaugural T20 World Cup, marking a rapid spread of the shortest format and, as a result, a slow decline in ODIs.
In an era when ODIs are struggling to find both relevance and calendar space, Gill is one of the greatest ambassadors of the format.
He does what he does by beig in excellent control, producing a false shot to just 9.9 per cent of deliveries faced as per the CricViz database. For perspective, the corresponding percentage reads 10.05 for Kohli, 10.04 for Babar, and 10.13 for de Villiers.
India’s superb 2023 World Cup campaign had ended in heartbreak. If they want to complete their unfinished business in 2027, Gill will have to play a key role.
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