Shubman Gill becomes the 4th youngest to score a FC century for Punjab

Shubman Gill, who sparkled in the Youth Internationals for India recently, got off to a shimmering start in his first-class career. Gill, who made his debut against Bengal during the 6th round of Ranji Trophy, scored 63 in the first innings where no other player from his team managed to score more than 15 runs. He bettered his performance against Services with a century in a must-win game for Punjab considering their quarter-final hopes.

In the game played at the Gandhi Ground in Amritsar, the visiting team Services invited Punjab to bat first. The youngster scored his runs at a good strike rate from the very beginning. He opened the innings along with Jiwanjot Singh, who was retired hurt after scored a 93-ball 54. Shubman completed his fifty off 54 balls and raced to 97 off 101 by the last over before the Lunch break. However, Manan Vohra got out on the first ball of the over and that made Gill wait to achieve his maiden century.

Had Shubman Gill completed his century in the first session itself, he would have become only the 3rd player in Ranji Trophy history to score a century in the opening session of a game. In 1949/50, JN Seth scored 100* for Delhi in the opening session of the game against Southern Punjab while Bharat Awasthy scored 105* for Services against Jammu and Kashmir in 1965/66. After Lunch, Gill raised his century off 104 balls with a boundary. He was dismissed after scoring 129 off 142 balls which included 22 fours and a six.

At the age of 18 years and 78 days, he became the 4th youngest player to score a century for Punjab in first-class cricket. Dhurve Pandove holds the record having scored a century at the age of 14 years and 293 days way back in the 1988/89 season.

During the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2016/17, Gill made 220 runs across six innings including a hundred. He also scored 777 runs in ten Youth ODI games for India and was the joint quickest to complete 500 runs among Indians in the format.

Centuries before turning 19 in first-class cricket for Punjab:

(Stats as on November 25, 2017)