Shubman Gill was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 2025. Suresh Menon’s piece on Gill originally appeared in the 2026 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
The Five Cricketers of the Year represent a tradition that dates back to 1889, making this the oldest individual award in cricket. The Five are picked by the editor, and the selection is based, primarily but not exclusively, on excellence in and/or influence on the previous English season. No one can be chosen more than once.
A Test match against South Africa in November is two days away, but India’s captain Shubman Gill sounds composed, simultaneously engaged and detached. He is a stoic who, according to his former coach Rahul Dravid, is “sorted”. The traditional and the modern co-exist in both the person and his batting, as befits a man whose name in Sanskrit means “of auspicious mind”. Asked what cricket means to him, the answer comes with the crispness of his cover-drive: “When I am playing, I am most present and one with myself.”
Before the South Africa series, when Gill retired with a neck spasm after facing only three balls, the pressure was different from what he had faced ahead of the tour of England. Then, it was the pressure of a first-time Test captain who had not scored a century outside the subcontinent. Now, it was the pressure of carrying India’s batting on his shoulders. That was the gift his 754 runs in England had bestowed. In a land of extreme passions, stoicism is useful, even necessary. Like his predecessors as captain and No.4, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, Gill is not allowed the luxury of failure. This is the compliment the Indian fan reserves only for the best.
In an era when effectiveness is priced above style, his batting has both. He gets to the ball in the languid manner of those with time on their hands, yet the power is startling. When he strikes, it is a treat for the senses, the sound rich, the finish elegant. There is nothing excessive: no unnecessary step, no hurry, no straining for effect.
Don Bradman’s record of 974 runs in a Test series, during the 1930 Ashes, came under threat in England: Gill made 585 in the first two Tests, including 147 at Headingley, then 269 and 161 at Edgbaston. Another 390 runs in the remaining three games, and he would have passed Bradman. He managed another hundred, at Old Trafford, but Gill had to rest content with his anointment as the face of Indian cricket.
At Edgbaston, the full range had been on display. There was the short-arm jab that seemed to tell the fast bowler: “Don’t waste your energy – I am not going to waste mine.” There was the controlled late cut, and the mischievous stroke to the exact spot from which a fielder had just been moved. There were variations on the cover-drive, a jump-and-swat at Josh Tongue that went for four. When he pivoted and swung to fine leg, he seemed to be playing with a straight bat. Above all, there was the forward defence, to remind everyone he was in command. The Manchester hundred was more obdurate, less baroque, though one stroke stays in the mind – a square cut, feet in the air, off Jofra Archer that hurried to the fence with the single-mindedness of someone running to catch a moving train. “I am fed up watching him bat,” said England’s assistant coach Marcus Trescothick. He was in the minority.
SHUBMAN SINGH GILL was born on September 8, 1999, in Fazilka, Punjab. His early training was driven by his father, who employed helpers to bowl at him for long spells. “Growing up, I played all of my cricket for my dad,” Gill has said. At 19, he wrote of his father, Lakhwinder Singh Gill, an aspiring cricketer and a farmer in a family of farmers: “When my father didn’t have my hand, he had my back.”
Gill was eight when the family moved to Mohali, nearly 200 miles away, because Fazilka lacked the facilities to nurture a future India player. After settling into a house near the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Gill enrolled at an academy. The hours were six to ten each morning, but Lakhwinder woke Shubman up at three, for extra practice. By the time he was 11, he was taking on bowlers twice his age; at 14, he scored 351 for Mohali, and was informed by his father he should have made 400. After the double at Edgbaston, Gill told a friend his father might be unhappy he hadn’t pushed on to a triple.
The breaks came with unwavering inevitability. India Under-19 in 2016, vice-captain at the Under-19 World Cup in 2018, when he was player of the tournament. In between, he announced himself with a half-century on Ranji Trophy debut for Punjab, then a century in the next match. IPL riches followed, with Kolkata Knight Riders offering around £200,000. In 2018/19, Gill made his ODI debut and, four years later, became the format’s youngest double-centurion. In 2020/21, in his first Test series, his 91 at Brisbane helped clinch victory in Australia. He had served notice: this was an all-format player, and a natural captain.
The pressure of inevitability seemed to raise his game. Dravid’s pithy single-word description is both expressive and explanatory. Gill was sorted – he always was – marrying old-style technique with modern adaptability. Colleagues gravitated towards him for his calm and balance, even in the early days. “He was a leader before he was formally appointed,” says Dravid.
Gill is a fan of the musician Ludovico Einaudi, and enjoys visiting the past. “I love history – as seen through art and architecture,” he says. “It is inspiring to know where we come from.” He is aware he may sound pretentious, but it is all part of the package. As are the lines he quotes from a range of personalities, from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius (“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact; everything we see is a perspective, not the truth”) to the Mongol warrior Genghis Khan (“If you are afraid, don’t do it; if you are doing it, don’t be afraid”).
Where does Gill see himself in 20 years? “I see myself being 46,” he says drily. He adds: “Somewhere peaceful and happy.” What of farming? “My father probably wants that – I don’t think I do,” he says gently but firmly, this player who may be known as India’s philosopher-captain by the time he finishes.
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