IND vs ENG 2nd Test: Shubman Gill's historic innings, Akash Deep's deadly bowling; India's second day went in their favour

Shubman Gill played a magnificent innings of 141 runs while he played his first match as a Test captain in Leeds and when he came out to face the ball in the second test match of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy on Wednesday at the Birmingham ground, he played at the same pace and returned unbeaten in the inaugural day by scoring 114 runs, but that young captain could not stay satisfied with that.

On Thursday, Gill achieved what no Indian or Asian skipper has been able to do back on England soil to date. Shubman Gill put the England batsmen to the ultimate test by scoring for eight hours and 48 minutes. First, he crossed the 200-run barrier off 311 balls and then crossed the 250 mark with a four.

Finally, he returned to the pavilion after scoring 269 runs in 387 balls. Thanks to this innings of Gill, India scored a huge score of 587 runs in the first innings. By stumps on the second day, England had scored 77 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. Joe Root is unbeaten on 18, and Harry Brook is on 30. Akash Deep has taken 2 wickets, and Siraj has taken 1 wicket for India.

Gill completed his first Test double century by taking a run towards deep fine leg off Josh Tang. Gill faced 311 balls in his 200-run innings and hit 21 fours and two sixes. This double century has become his first as a captain and a very memorable innings overall.

With this achievement, Shubman Gill has joined the distinguished list of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni, who have scored a double century in Tests as captain for India. Before Gill, the highest score as an Indian captain in the country (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) was in the name of Mohammad Azharuddin, who scored 192 runs against New Zealand in Auckland in 1990.

At the same time, Azharuddin's 179 runs (Manchester, 1990) was the highest score as a captain in England, which has now been surpassed by Gill. Earlier, Gill had scored 147 runs in his debut match as captain in Leeds and now by scoring a double century at Edgbaston, he has proved that the command of the Indian Test team is in the hands of a reliable and strong batsman. Shubman Gill has become the third batsman of India to score a double century in England. Before him, only Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid had achieved this feat.

Apart from Gill, Ravindra Jadeja played a brilliant innings of 89 runs and laid the foundation for the Indian team to reach a huge target. England's fast bowlers were not getting help from the pitch, taking advantage of which Gill and Jadeja shared a 203-run partnership for the sixth wicket. India started the second day at 310 for five and added 109 runs in 25 overs in the morning session, losing one wicket in the form of Jadeja.

On the second day, Washington Sundar missed the fifty. He scored 42 runs off 103 balls. Akash Deep scored 6 and Mohammad Siraj scored 8 runs. Prasidh Krishna remained unbeaten on 5 runs. Spinner Shoaib Bashir got 3 successes. Josh Tongue and Chris Box took 2-2 wickets.

England started their first innings in a beige ball style and scored 12 runs in the first over of Akash Deep. However, in the third over of the innings, Akash gave England 2 back-to-back blows. Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope could not even open their account. In the 8th over, Siraj got opener Jack Crowley caught by Karun Nair at slip. Crowley scored 19 runs off 30 balls.