Shubman Gill Surpasses MS Dhoni, Enters Elite Indian List for Fastest to 1,000 ODI Runs by Balls Faced

India’s captain Shubman Gill etched his name further into the record books during a commanding performance against Afghanistan in the second ODI at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. The 26-year-old batsman reached the historic milestone of 1,000 ODI runs in terms of balls faced, doing so in just 954 deliveries. By achieving this feat, Gill edged past former legendary skipper MS Dhoni, who had taken 955 balls to hit the four-figure mark. With this achievement, Gill now shares the third spot on the all-time fastest Indian list with Kapil Dev (~954 balls), trailing only Hardik Pandya (857 balls) and Kedar Jadhav (936 balls). Concurrently, Gill also became the fastest Indian batter to reach 1,000 ODI runs in terms of innings, taking just 19 innings to comfortably eclipse the previous joint record of 24 innings held by Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan.

The milestone arrived amid a spectacular batting display where Gill slammed his maiden ODI century as India’s captain. Stepping up after the early departures of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma, the elegant right-hander anchored the innings alongside wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan. The duo put on an extraordinary, aggressive 224-run partnership for the third wicket, completely dismantling the Afghanistan bowling attack. Gill brought up his ninth individual ODI century in just 77 deliveries before pushing through severe physical cramps to finish with a magnificent 154 runs off 110 balls, an innings decorated with 22 boundaries and two sixes. Supported by Kishan’s explosive 125 off 79 balls, the historic partnership guided India to a colossal total of 402 runs, reinforcing Gill’s status as a premier leader of India’s next generation of white-ball cricket.