Team India skipper Shubman Gill was trending across all social media platforms yesterday. After winning a historic Test match against England at Edgbaston for the first time, Shubman Gill made heads turn with one single moment.
During the fourth day of play, Team India were going at a brisk pace with the scoreboard reading 427/6 declared when Gill came to the dressing room and signalled his teammates that they were declaring their second innings.
It wasn’t just the timing of the declaration that drew attention; it was what he was wearing when he made it.
Wearing a black Nike vest, he called in his teammates from the field. The sight raised eyebrows, given that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has an exclusive sponsorship agreement with Adidas, Nike’s direct competitor, running until March 2028. According to the deal, India’s cricket kits, across the men’s and women’s teams and across all age groups, will be sponsored by Adidas.
As images of Gill’s Nike-clad declaration circulated online, fans quickly began to question whether the young captain may have inadvertently breached the BCCI’s commercial obligations. The Nike logo, clearly visible across his chest, sparked a wave of social media reactions, some critical, others tongue-in-cheek, but all noting the implications.
Adidas might have paid a lot of money to sponsor the Indian cricket jersey, but Shubman Gill wearing a Nike compression shirt just stole the whole show pic.twitter.com/521UGnnPYV
— isHaHaHa (@hajarkagalwa) July 6, 2025
Shubman Gill scored 430 runs in a test match and coming out with a Nike tshirt to declare innings when adidas is the primary sponsor of ICT
That is called Aura 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Man of the match bhe#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/0dyM0OFh9K— Mustafa (@mustafamasood0) July 6, 2025
Ground pe Adidas
Ground ke bahar NikeShubman Gill fulfilling both
the team sponsorship and the personal one.
(Shubman Gill is the ambassador of Nike) pic.twitter.com/yqbZR8cnGU— Thakur Pratyaksh Bhati (@Pratyaksh4105) July 7, 2025
Adidas x Nike
Divided by name united by Shubman Gill
— GUY (@sportswalaguy) July 6, 2025
Will Adidas fine Gill for donning Nike here?
I know the inner is a personal gear and not part of the kit that Adidas provides, but back in 2006-07, Ganguly was penalised for sporting a Puma headband when the Nike was the kit sponsor. pic.twitter.com/Q7tklZDxkU
— Karan Khera 👋 (@karank_) July 5, 2025
The BCCI has not issued an official statement yet on the vest incident, but observers believe the matter could escalate internally due to sponsorship sensitivities.
Besides the official apparel breach, the Test match will be remembered for the multiple records broken by Team India.
1-7 India’s win-loss record in Test matches at Edgbaston. They had lost seven of their first eight games (with one draw) before beating England for the first time at the venue.
336 India’s margin of victory at Edgbaston is their biggest by runs away from home. Their previous biggest was a 318-run victory against the West Indies at North Sound in 2019.
10 for 187 Akash Deep’s match figures at Edgbaston are the best for India in a men’s Test in England. Chetan Sharma, also at Edgbaston in 1986, is the only other Indian with a ten-for in England.
17 Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj’s tally of wickets at Edgbaston is the joint highest by India’s new-ball bowlers in a Test. Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2005, and Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens in 2019, also took 17 wickets.
Shubman Gill (269+161) is now the first to achieve a 250+ & a 150+ in a Test match.
However, he is the 2nd to do so in FC cricket, after Dhruv Shorey (252*+150*), who achieved this feat for Delhi against Assam at Guwahati in December 2022 in the Ranji Trophy.
Shubman Gill’s aggregate of 430 runs is the second-highest in a Test match. The highest being England’s Graham Gooch, who smashed 456 runs in a Test against India at Lord’s in 1990.
Shubman Gill has now become the first Indian to aggregate 350+ runs in a Test match! Additionally, he is the first Indian captain to aggregate 300+ runs in a Test match.
