Hyderabad: Shubman Gill on Wednesday stormed into the record books by smashing a magnificent double hundred in the first ODI against New Zealand at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, here. Gill's stunning knock saw him join elite company as one of just eight players in the history of the game to have scored a double hundred in a men's ODI, with him being the youngest of those eight players in the coveted club. Coming into the first ODI, Gill was 23 years and 132 days old. The previous youngest was Ishan Kishan, who set the record with his 210 against Bangladesh last month at the age of 24 years and 145 days.
After the match, Gill was joined by captain Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan as they discussed Gill's knock. And when Ishan Kishan asked the right-handed batsman—who apparently are room-mates—about his pre-match routine, Gill said: "Bandha sara routine kharab kar deta hain. I-pad pe movie dekhna hota hain aur speaker pe sunta hain (This guy spoils my routine. He watches a movie on the I-pad without the ear buds with full volume on the speaker)."
Gill fell in the final over to close out his knock on 208 from 149 balls, having hit 19 fours and nine sixes to lift India to a massive score of 349/8. In the process, he also became the fastest Indian cricketer to record 1000 ODI runs when he reached 106 in his 19th ODI innings. It continues Gill's purple patch in ODI cricket, after his last knock in the format was a 97-ball 116 against Sri Lanka in the final game of the series at Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. Gill overtook Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan, who jointly held the previous record at 24 innings to become the fastest Indian and the joint-second fastest ever to 1000 runs mark in ODIs. He equalled Pakistan opener Iman-ul-Haq for breaching the 1000-run mark in 19 innings while missing out on another Pakistan opener Fakhar Zaman's record of fastest to 1000 ODI runs in 18 innings.
