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India’s newest Test captain Shubman Gill hails from a village in Punjab which is 16 kilometers away from the Pakistan border.
Shubman Gill poses for a photo with his family. (Pic Credit: IG/shubmangill)
Shubman Gill, India’s 37th Test captain, will oversee the team’s transition into a new era in the company of head coach Gautam Gambhir. Gill, the fifth youngest to lead the country in red-ball cricket, will have the challenging tour of England as his first assignment, especially in the absence of senior cricketers including Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who recently called time on their respective red-ball careers.
The ascension to Test captaincy is the latest feather in the cap of young Gill, who has been earmarked for greatness since his U-19 days. And he has justified the hype.
The top-order batter hails from Chak Kherewala, a village in the Fazilka district of Punjab, that is a mere 16 kilometres away from the Pakistan border.
Hailing from a farming family, Gill’s parents sacrificed their home comforts to help their son pursue his cricket dreams. They left their village for Mohali, where the then-budding cricketer could hone his talent.
However, people questioned their move, mocking them for leaving a comfortable life for cricket.
“Being a border village, the only way people have earned money here is agricultural land,” The Indian Express quoted Gill’s paternal aunt Gurpreet Sandhu as saying. “My father has always taken pride in being a farmer. So, when my brother decided to shift, it not only meant that my father’s son was leaving the village but his grandkids would too.”
“People used to taunt them, saying who goes so far for cricket training. But then somebody had to make the sacrifice. And both, my father and brother, did that. To see Shubman lead the Indian team will be the proudest moment for my father and brother,” she added.
Today, Gill is hailed as a hero at his village, with people taking pride in the cricketer’s success.
“This place will now be known as India Test captain’s village,” says Chak Kherewala’s sarpanch Ranga Ram.
Surinder Chhindi, the secretary of the Fazilka Cricket Association, says that, encouraged by Gill’s success, parents here are now more open to sending their kids for cricket training.
“People here would earlier hesitate to send their kids for cricket training since there was no facility. But since Shubman made headlines, we too have been seeing an increase in parents encouraging their kids to play. While there are fewer academies, we hope things change with the new stadium near Shubman’s village,” said Chhindi.
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