Shubman Gill has been in the form of his life. A century as India’s ODI captain is just the latest proof that he is entering the best phase of his career. There are certain moments in cricket that tell you something big is about to happen. Not just a good match, not just a good series, but a whole chapter in the history of the game. Shubman Gill’s first ODI hundred as India’s captain feels exactly like one of those moments.
The 25-year-old right-hander from Punjab has been building towards this. Every innings, every tour, every season has added something to his game. And now, it looks like everything has come together at the right time.
The Hundred That Said It All
Gill registered his maiden ODI century as India’s captain in the series against Afghanistan. It was not just another knock, it was a statement. It came right after his 84 in Dharamshala, which was already his highest score as ODI skipper at that point. Two back-to-back big innings told a clear story: Gill is now fully switched on in the 50-over format.
As a captain, Gill now averages 59.42 in ODIs across 8 innings, scoring 416 runs with a highest score of 154. His strike rate stands at 112.12, which is impressive for an opener in ODI cricket. He has 1 hundred and 3 fifties in those 8 innings alone.
Before taking over the captaincy, Gill had already been excellent in ODIs, 2775 runs in 55 innings at an average of 59.04, with 8 hundreds and 15 fifties. So the numbers are not new. But there is a new energy, a new level of confidence in the way he is batting now.
A Batter Who Has Found His Peak
In cricket, there is a window when a batter is at his absolute best. He knows his game completely. His body is strong. His mind is sharp. The ball seems to come to him slowly, and he always seems to have more time than others. This window usually falls between the ages of 26 and 32 for most top players.
Shubman Gill is right at the start of that window.
His peak actually started in 2025, though most people could see it coming. During the India vs England Test series, he scored 147, 269, 161, and 103 in some of the matches. Those were not just big scores, they were the kind of scores that change how the cricket world looks at a batter. Since then, he has kept that form going in Test cricket as well, averaging a massive 87.75 in red-ball cricket after taking over as captain. One hundred and two fifties in five innings after that England series show it was no fluke.
In the IPL too, Gill has been on fire. Over the last two seasons, he has scored 1382 IPL runs. That kind of consistency across all formats, for two full years, is not easy to maintain. And yet Gill has done it.
His T20I numbers were a little mixed in 2025, but that was always the least important format for him. ODIs and Tests are where Gill’s game fits perfectly, and that is where he has really taken off.
The Rough Patch That Made the Comeback Sweeter
Even the best players go through tough phases. Gill had his own.
When he took over as India’s ODI captain, things did not start smoothly. In his debut series as ODI captain against Australia, he managed just 43 runs in 3 matches. That is not the kind of start anyone dreams of when they are handed the captaincy.
He was better against New Zealand, two half-centuries showed some improvement, but there was still a feeling that the big scores were missing. For a batter of his quality, fifties were not enough. People wanted hundreds, and more importantly, Gill himself knew that hundreds were what he was capable of.
Then came the Afghanistan series. First the 84 in Dharamshala. Then the century. Like a switch had been flipped.
This is what separates good players from great ones. They go through difficult patches, but they come out the other side. Not just back to their old level, but often better. That seems to be exactly what has happened with Gill in ODI cricket.
A Peak Like Virat Kohli’s?
It is a big comparison to make, but it is an honest one.
Virat Kohli had one of the greatest peaks any cricket player has ever had. From 2012 to 2019, Kohli scored 18,295 runs at an average of 60.78 across all formats. The next best in that period was Joe Root, who was still more than 4,000 runs behind. Kohli did not just dominate Indian cricket during those years, he dominated world cricket.
Gill could be at the start of something similar.
He will not play many T20Is, much like how Kohli moved away from T20 cricket at a certain point. But in ODIs and Tests, Gill has all the tools to go on a long run of big scores and big series. He bats long, he bats smart, he can shift gears, and he leads the team. Over the next five years or so, he could be the central figure in Indian cricket across both these formats.
Of course, comparisons with Kohli are always tricky. Kohli was a once-in-a-generation player. But Gill has his own strengths, and one of them is timing, both in terms of his batting and where his career stands right now.
The ODI World Cup 2027 Goal
Gill has one big advantage over Kohli’s peak years, the Indian team around him is much more settled in white-ball cricket.
India has won 3 ICC trophies in the last 3 years. The team has found a winning formula in white-ball cricket, and the squad is full of players who know how to win big tournaments. The only thing missing is the ODI World Cup trophy since 2023, when Australia beat India in the final despite the Men in Blue having a brilliant tournament.
Gill was part of that 2023 campaign. He knows how close India came and what it felt like to fall at the last hurdle. Now he is not just a batter in the team, he is the captain. If India wins the ODI World Cup 2027, Gill will lift that trophy.
There is something truly poetic about the picture that could come together. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, two of the all-time great Indian cricketers, have given so much of themselves to win an ODI World Cup. If they are still around in 2027, and if India wins it under Gill’s captaincy, it would be one of cricket’s most emotional moments.
Both Kohli and Rohit have had decorated careers, but an ODI World Cup victory has been the one thing missing since 2011. To end their careers with another one, this time standing next to a new young captain, would be a perfect ending.
The Captain Who Leads With His Bat
The best way any batting captain can lead is by scoring runs. Words and tactics matter, but when a captain walks out and gets a hundred, the whole team feels it.
Gill has shown that he can do exactly that. His ODI captaincy record, 416 runs at 59.42 with a hundred and three fifties, is already a strong one. And given that he is still finding his best form in this role, those numbers are only going to improve.
In Test cricket, his captaincy average of 87.75 is nothing short of remarkable. It means that on average, every time he bats as captain in Tests, he gets close to a ton. That kind of form at the top of the order sets the tone for the entire team.
What also stands out about Gill as a captain-batter is his strike rate. At 112.12 in ODIs as captain, he is not just scoring runs, he is scoring them quickly. That makes him the ideal opener for a team that wants to set big totals or chase them down at a good pace.
Shubman Gill made his ODI debut back in 2019. His early years were about learning, adjusting, and slowly making a name for himself at the international level. He had talent that everyone could see, but converting that into consistent big scores took time.
By 2023, he had scored a double hundred in ODI cricket, his highest ODI score stands at 208. He had already shown that he can build big innings when the moment calls for it. But there were still gaps, still series where he did not quite fire the way everyone hoped.
2025 changed everything. The England Test series was the moment the world sat up and took notice. After that, Gill has not looked back. And with the ODI captaincy now in his hands, he has a new reason to keep pushing himself every single time he steps on the field.
Shubman Gill’s first ODI century as captain is more than just a number. It is a sign that a new era of Indian cricket has well and truly begun, and he is right at the heart of it.
