India’s Shubman Gill celebrates after scoring fifty runs during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and Bangladesh at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
India vice-captain Shubman Gil continued his rich vein of form when he brought up his 8th ODI century, also his maiden Champions Trophy ton, in the match against Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday as he helped his team win the match by 6 wickets. Gill, who recently scored a century and two fifties in the England series, brought up his milestone in 125 balls in an innings peppered with 9 boundaries and 2 sixes.
Gill’s century played a vital part in keeping India steady in the match after the Men in Blue lost some crucial wickets with captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer all in the hut.
On Wednesday, Gill dethroned Pakistan’s Babar Azam from the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings by India. In the latest ICC rankings list, Gill has 796 rating points while Babar has 773. India skipper Rohit Sharma is ranked third with 761 points. South Africa’s Henrich Klaasen and New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell at fourth and fifth respectively.
Earlier, pacer Mohammed Shami returned to an ICC tournament with a five-wicket haul as Bangladesh rode on Towhid Hridoy’s maiden international century to recover from a nightmarish start and posted 228 all out against India in their opening match of Champions Trophy. On the day, Shami also picked up his 200th ODI wicket.
Opting to bat, Bangladesh were off to a disastrous start and slipped 35 for five with Shami and left-arm spinner Axar (2/43) doing the early damage.
Axar would have had a hat-trick if India skipper Rohit Sharma had not dropped a regulation catch from the blade of Jaker Ali (68 off 114 balls) at first slip.
The technically sound Hridoy in the company of Ali steadied the Bangladesh innings with a sixth-wicket partnership of 154 runs. Hardik Pandya dropped Towhid at mid-off when the batter was on 23.
