INDORE (Madhya Pradesh): Batter Shubman Gill joined the elite company of legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid etc. as he became the seventh Indian player to smash a fifth-century in a calendar year in ODI cricket.
The in-form 24-year-old batter accomplished this feat during India’s second ODI against Australia at Indore.
Gill was at his lethal best, scoring 104 in 97 balls with six fours and four sixes. His runs came at a strike rate of 107.21. He had a double hundred partnership with Shreyas Iyer, who also scored a century.
This is Gill’s fifth ODI century of the year.
Virat has achieved the feat of five or more ODI centuries in a calendar year a total of four times, in 2012 (five), 2017 (six), 2018 (five) and 2019 (five). Skipper Rohit Sharma accomplished the feat in 2017 (six), 2018 (five) and 2019 (seven).
Sachin accomplished this feat in 1996 (six) and 1998 (nine).
In 1999, Dravid scored six ODI centuries, while in 2000, Sourav Ganguly scored seven ODI tons.
Shikhar Dhawan scored five ODI centuries in 2013, the year which saw him win the golden bat in the ICC Champions Trophy winning campaign with India.
Gill is in exceptional form this year. In 20 ODIs, he has scored 1,230 runs at an average of 72.35 and a strike rate of 105.03. He has five centuries and five fifties in 20 innings, with the best score of 208 in an ODI against New Zealand.
Across all formats in 36 matches and 39 innings, he has scored 1,764 runs at an average of 51.88 and a strike rate of over 101. He has seven centuries and six fifties, with the best score of 208.
Coming to the match, Australia won the toss and elected to field first.
India leads the three-match series 1-0 after winning the first ODI by five wickets.
India (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w/c), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Prasidh Krishna
Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Matthew Short, Steven Smith(c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey(w), Cameron Green, Sean Abbott, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Spencer Johnson. (ANI)