IT was just after 7AM on June 1. As Mohali and the rest of India were waking up on a lazy Sunday morning, the park behind the IS Bindra Stadium was buzzing. As one walked past what is now the old Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, the park, developed and maintained by the District Cricket Association Mohali, was swarming with people.
On one side of the park, which is essentially a vast ground with nets along the walls of the Bindra stadium, a tennis ball cricket game was on. Along the pavement parents were waiting, chit chatting, as their children — all of them in whites — stood as a group near the nets with a couple of coaches. In one of the nets, a young boy was already padded up, taking throwdowns. This is not an unusual sight at this ground. If anything, it has been the routine for several years.
In fact, it is at this ground, and one of these nets along the walls of the IS Bindra Stadium, Shubman Gill — India’s newest Test captain — was first spotted as a batting talent when he was not even a teenager.
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Around 15 years ago, former India cricketer Karsan Ghavri was in Mohali for a fast bowling camp organised by the BCCI. He had requested the Punjab Cricket Association for batters of different age-groups to face the pacers in the camp. During the camp, one day the training was cancelled due to rain. Ghavri and his assistant coach, Yoginder Puri, took a stroll around the stadium and ended up at the ground behind.
That is where Ghavri saw a lanky boy, who was around 12, batting in the nets. Impressed by his sound technique and solid defence, Ghavri and Puri walked along the boundary line and saw someone sitting there. “I asked him, ‘Who is that boy?’ and he said, ‘That is my son’,” Ghavri recalls his first conversation with Lakhwinder Singh, Shubman’s father.
Ghavri asked Lakhwinder to bring Shubman to the camp the next day. “It was a U16 fast bowling camp, and he was facing the bowlers like a 16 or 17 year old. He was just 11 or 12 then. His stroke-play was very fluent, and he just continued being with us. We had another U19 camp, and we called him again about three times, and he was part of the camp regularly. He used to come and train with our boys, bat for long periods and he stood out,” says Ghavri.
Soon, the former India cricketer asked Sushil Kapoor, who was with the PCA at the time, to include Shubman in the U14 Punjab team. And that marked the beginning of the folklore about a teen prodigy plundering runs across age-groups before rising through the ranks and doing the same at the senior level with the Punjab and all other sides he played for.
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About 280km away from Mohali is Chak Khere Wala village near Jalalabad in Fazilka district. This is where Shubman started his journey as a three-year-old. The village, located near the India-Pakistan border, is about 30km from Fazilka with sprawling farmlands on either side of the narrow roads. After harvesting, the land is barren and brown. There is dust in every gust of wind that blew across the fields.
It did not take long to find the house where Shubman used to live with Lakhwinder, mom Keart, elder sister Shahneel and grandparents — Sardar Didar Singh and Gurmail. Shubman was not even four when Didar Singh carved out a tree trunk and made a bat for his grandson. Lakhwinder used a straw mat in the front yard to stimulate pace and the people who worked on their farm gave throwdowns. The scarred kitchen walls stand as testimony of the time he spent batting in the front-yard.
By the time he was seven, Lakhwinder, in the hopes of realising his dream, moved to Mohali. Shubman started training under Sukhwinder Tinku. His dad had made it his mission to make Shubman a cricketer. All through the week, Lakhwinder would spend every minute with his son for his training and would go back to the village to take care of the farm during weekends.
"His father had the most important role in shaping Shubman’s career and game,” recalls former India cricketer Gurkeerat Singh Mann. “It's not easy to leave everything behind for your son, day in and day out, and spend time in practice every day. He had to make Shubhman practise for the whole week. He had to go to his village and do his work in the farmlands,” Gurkeerat adds.
It is where Shubman developed his appetite for batting, and soon it became an obsession. So much so that he had to be dragged out of the nets while training with the Punjab team. “You have to tell him, 'dekh bhai, bas kar yaar. Agle ke baari hai (Look, brother, enough. Next one’s turn now). In the nets, he never likes to stop. In the nets, there is a timing; each batter gets 15-20 minutes. But it was never enough for him. I have to tell him ten times, ‘come on, come on, it's done’. In the morning, he trains with (Lakhwinder) uncle for two hours. Then in the evening, after the academy practice, he has to bat again. So, every day, he used to spend at least 4-5 hours batting right from the beginning,” says Gurkeerat who has seen Gill since the time he moved to Mohali.
All the time he spent batting reflected in the results, especially big hundreds. It is a habit he had built right through age-group cricket. When he was 14, Shubman put on a world record opening stand of 587 along with Nirmal Singh during an inter-district game against Amritsar. Shubman smashed 351 while Nirmal scored 267. Shubman continued the habit at the senior level as well — a double century against Tamil Nadu in his Ranji debut season, double centuries in the West Indies and New Zealand while representing the India A team meant soon he was in the reckoning for the senior team. It did not take long either as Shubman made his Test debut in the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the MCG in 2020.
From thereon, there has been no looking back. Four and a half years have passed and today, Shubman is the India Test captain. While a lot has changed on the cricketing front, nothing has changed for him as a person. Shubman is still the same as he was when he moved to Mohali in 2007, says Gurkeerat. For the 25-year-old, there is cricket on one side and friends and family on the other. Any time he is in the city and not practising, Shubman would be with his close group of friends or family, hanging out.
“His schedule is such that he doesn't have time to do anything else. Earlier, he used to practice twice a day. If you are doing 3-4 things a day, as a kid, you would not have energy to do anything else. So, whenever Shubman wants to chill, he will call his friends. He will say, ‘let's sit at home. Or, he will go out for coffee or dinner’. He doesn't like fancy things. He has not changed one bit,” says Gurkeerat while admitting that Shubman has evolved a lot. “These things come naturally. He has always had leadership qualities. I will give you a small example. Out of the cricket field, I am telling you, people like him, their attitude, these leadership qualities, helping people, or taking care of them are there from the very beginning,” he adds.
As Shubman’s stature grew, so did all the attention and everything else around and about him. In Mohali, everyone seems to know a tale about the new India Test captain. Cab driver Sanam said that he used to know Shubman in the younger days when he was in Jalalabad. Everyone, both at the old and New PCA Stadium, has a story to narrate.
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The day Shubman was named Test captain, his village, Chak Khere Wala, was thronged with people including the media, and the senior Gills (grandparents) remained indoors for privacy. During the IPL playoffs, the frenzy had mellowed. Didar Singh has resumed the renovation work of the old house. They haven’t moved to Mohali and even during the recent blackout during India-Pakistan cross-border tensions, they remained in the village. Even as the renovation works continue, 90-year-old Didar, who said he will not be giving an interview, shows around the house with a big smile on his face.
The front yard where Shubman spent years batting is still there, but barring the room where he and Gurmail stay, everything else is being rebuilt. Owing to their old age and health, they do not move out as often, but it is impossible to not notice how proud they are of their grandson. The memento plaques of welcoming and honouring Shubman right from the 2018 U19 World Cup till the recent Champions Trophy decorate the shelves. Most of his medals and trophies from childhood, including the first bat Didar made for Shubman, are now in their Mohali home.
Shubman's effect is seen in the village playing fields as well. The interest in taking up the sport has grown multifold in the village. The Fazilka District Cricket Association is building a new cricket stadium in his honour in Bahmani Wala, a village closer to Chak Khere Wala. There, they had a screening of the Champions Trophy semifinal and final with the young kids who train there watching and cheering for one of their loved one. Shubman hasn’t forgotten his roots either.
Back in Chak Khere Wala, Jaimal Wala Academy has been running for more than a year with around 20 young aspiring kids taking up the sport. Lakhwinder and Shubman have donated `3.5 lakhs to the academy as they have finished constructing the nets earlier this week.
They, and every single person you talk to in Punjab, are immensely proud of the fact that he will be the first male cricketer from united Punjab to lead India in Test cricket. This could be the first time in Indian cricketing history that both men and women's team captains are from Punjab. Harmanpreet Kaur — India women captain — hails from a small Punjab village called Moga, about 125 kms from Shubman village. They could not be more contrasting when it comes to on-field personality, but they represent the hinterlands of the country.
Shubman, at the moment, has massive shoes to fill, especially in the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – both their predecessors. While it seems likely that Shubman will take over Kohli’s No. 4 spot in the batting line-up, the bigger question would be what kind of captain he eventually turns out to be. Rohit and Kohli had their own styles, albeit contrasting, and brought their perspectives to the game.
With Shubman, it is not going to be any different. He might not be too animated or excited on the field as Kohli was, nor would he be making quirky, comical remarks like Rohit. Shubman’s first and foremost job would be to handle his players in the dressing room and the tactics he employs on the field. “At that level, they make their own identity. They are one of their own. I don’t think they do this by looking at someone else. These guys (captains) do their own thing, and everybody else watches them. I am very hopeful that he (Shubman) will do well for India. This is a new era; two legends have retired. These young boys have to settle in and take the team forward in the coming time. My best wishes are with him and hopefully, he will make the country proud like he has always made us proud,” says Gurkeerat.
“He's still very, very young, and with the kind of responsibility on his shoulders, this is a young team with relatively new players. We will have to see how he fares as a captain and a batter. I hope he does well. If they win the series, then I think it will be something very special,” Ghavri adds.
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Back in the District Cricket Association Mohali ground behind the IS Bindra Stadium, the huddle has dispersed. The young aspiring cricketers split into two groups, with each coach taking care of one. They began with fielding drills before spending the next couple of hours of their Sunday morning doing exactly what Shubman did at the same ground all those years ago.
When Shubman walks out onto the Leeds Cricket Ground on June 20, donning the India blazer as the Test captain, expect all those kids from the ground, Gurkeerat, Ghavri, the Gills in Chak Khere Wala village, and everyone to be glued to their television screens. For this is a new beginning. And it is their Shubman Gill who is given the job to take Indian cricket forward.