Ahmedabad: Shubman Gill is making the best use of his good form. The youngster has translated his run-scoring spree from the ODIs into the T20Is as he converted his maiden T20I half-century into a hundred in the third T20I against New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. As soon as he got to the three-figures mark, he became the fifth Indian batter to score at least one century across all the three formats.
Gill joined Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli to achieve the feat. Riding on his century, the Men in Blue posted a mammoth total of 234/4 in the series decider after opting to bat first. His innings of 126* was studded with 12 fours and 7 sixes. The right-handed batter batted through the innings and while he was initially looking to bat as per the merit of the ball, he really took off in the latter half of his knock.
Highest individual score by an Indian in T20Is
Shubman's knock also happens to be the highest individual score by an Indian in T20Is and for somebody who didn't have a half-century in this format before this match, this comes as a remarkable achievement. Shubman recently became the youngest man to score a double century in ODIs. While there were questions over his place in the shortest format, there was never a doubt about his potential.
This knock though will help him get a longer run in this format. Despite the Men in Blue losing Ishan Kishan early, India managed to post 234 in almost a perfect innings barring the early wicket. Rahul Tripathi first scored a brisk 44 off 22 when Gill was playing a bit of an anchor role. Post his dismissal, Hardik Pandya (30 off 17) and Suryakumar Yadav (24 off 13) scored cameos before the opener came to his own and scored a flurry of boundaries to finish with the highest-ever T20I score by an Indian batter.