Calm along with the storm: how Shubman Gill makes batting belligerence beautiful

Going along with the high returns is a strike rate of 103.45. Only 24 batters have ever aggregated at least 1,000 ODI runs with a 100-plus strike rate. A silken-smooth operator at all times, Gill is an outlier in a terrifying list of marauders, featuring the likes of Shahid Afridi, Virender Sehwag, Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers.

Gill’s methods are conspicuously different. His diet includes a greater manipulation of the field along the carpet, not over it. Yet, a maximum is never out of reach. His power-hitting range is limited, which keeps him out of India’s current T20I plans. However, Gill can now summon a six on a whim, almost as effortlessly, with an extended drive over long-off, a languid flick over square-leg, or a pick-up jab over mid-wicket.

Example of prowess

The convergence of these strengths nudged perfection at the ACA Stadium on Wednesday, when a 400-run cushion, overhauled just once before in history, couldn’t save the West Indies as a paata flatbed, quick outfield and short boundary dimensions played into the batters’ hands.

It takes a flawless day to get an ODI double ton. That day never dawned on the men’s game for the first 39 years and 2,961 games. Sachin Tendulkar led the way in 2010 with his 200* against South Africa in Gwalior. The next five years beckoned as many double tons, with Rohit Sharma alone achieving the feat twice, including the world record 264.

Since 2017, the pantheon has doubled to 10 occupants with 12 double hundreds. Every knock maximised a generous field, packed with a steady supply of boundaries, towering sixes, or both. Tendulkar only pumped three maximums against the Proteas, yet half of his innings was compiled in 25 fours across the turf. The delectable leg glance alone yielded 71 runs that February afternoon, bringing nine fours.

A year after his 209 against Australia in Bengaluru, where he struck 12 fours and 16 sixes, Rohit batted all 50 overs against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in his first match returning from a two-month injury layoff. The variance was in the boundary quotient this time: 33 fours and nine sixes.

Maxwell’s freak 201* in 2023, batting at five down and steering a 292-run chase from 91 for seven against Afghanistan in Mumbai, was a freak effort by a sapped, one-legged batter.

The method was scarcely believable, but also increasingly unrepeatable.

This is where Gill enters with the most minimalist approach to constructing an innings of such magnitude. A two-time ODI double centurion already, Gill’s innings-building ingredients have shifted negligibly since his 208 against New Zealand three years ago. However, the challenge of batting second two nights ago and exuding the same poise warrants a special place in the 200-club.

Not only did Gill record the fastest double century, off 117 deliveries, in a record 406-run chase, but he also tempered the flow of the innings with the highest control (over 90 percent) of all five centurions in the game. Controlled aerial shots (deliveries middled) yielded 100 of his 223 runs in 25 balls; the next-best was John Campbell’s 66.

Gill consumed 33 dot balls in all, the lowest dot percentage for any double hundred. With 26 fours and eight sixes, he is the only batter to crack a 200-plus score with a run rate (runs per six balls) exceeding 10.

TV times: India vs West Indies, 3rd ODI, from New Chandigarh, 2 pm on Star Sports Network and Jio Hotstar