Shubman Gill lived up to the hype of 'Prince' tag and slammed a stunning double century in the second Test against England at Edgbaston on Thursday (July 3).

He became only the sixth Indian captain to smash a double hundred in the longest format of the game, joining MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli in the elite list.

Gill resumed Day 2 on 114* and went on to score 269 off 387 balls with 30 boundaries and 3 sixes. He broke a plethora of records on the way, becoming the first Asian captain to score a double century in a Test match in England.

The lanky right-hander also set a new record for highest score by an Indian batter in a Test innings in England, going past the 221 scored by Sunil Gavaskar in 1979.

After his historic knock, Shubman Gill revealed that he had stopped enjoying his batting in pursuit of runs but going back to basics and making some technical changes helped him rediscover the joy in his craft.

Asked if he worked on his technique ahead of the series, Gill told host broadcaster: “Yes, absolutely. I think at the end of the IPL and before this series, I worked a lot on this.

"I mainly worked on my initial movement and my setup. Before this, I felt my batting was going well. I was scoring 30-35-40 runs consistently in Test matches. But at some point, I was missing that peak concentration time. A lot of people say that when you focus too much, you sometimes miss your peak time.

"So, in this series, I tried to go back to my basics. I tried to bat like I used to in my childhood. I didn't think about having reached 35-40 runs or about playing long innings. I just wanted to enjoy my batting."

During his innings, Gill added 203 runs for the sixth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja (89) and followed it up with another significant 144-run stand with Washington Sundar (42), which ultimately propelled India to a mammoth 587/10 in their first innings.

"Sometimes, when you aren't scoring runs fluently, you stop enjoying your batting. You focus too much on the need to score runs. I felt I had lost that in my batting. I was so focused that I wasn't enjoying my batting as much," he said.

Gill's knock is also the highest by an Indian captain in Tests, surpassing Virat Kohli's unbeaten 254 against South Africa in Pune in 2019.

"When I went in to bat before lunch on the first day, at tea I was on around 35-40 runs off about 100 balls. I came out and spoke to GG (Gautam Gambhir) Bhai. I told him, ‘I'm not getting runs freely, even though I have a lot of shots in my armoury.' I also felt the ball was a bit soft," the Punjab lad said.

"In the last match, I was scoring more fluently, but here it wasn't coming as easily. Still, my mindset was that if the wicket is good and I am set, no matter how long I bat, I shouldn't leave the match halfway.

"In the last match, I learnt that no matter how long you've been batting, under these conditions, there can be a collapse in the lower order at any time. So I tried to stay out there as long as I could. I wanted the bowler to get me out with a good ball and I shouldn't make mistakes. That was my approach," he remarked.

Gill, who led Gujarat Titans to the playoffs, was seen preparing for the England Test series by practising with the red ball during the IPL season in Ahmedabad.

"Because the IPL setup, the white-ball setup, and what I wanted to do there were very different. So I thought that if I started my preparation from then itself, it would give me an edge when the time for the series came," he said.

The 25-year-old admitted that it is tough to switch from one format to another. "It is very difficult. Especially with the way T20 is played nowadays, in the last 4-5 years, there has been a huge difference in technique, setup, and mindset.

"It's easy to go from T20 to T20, but coming back from T20 to Tests is a bit difficult because you have been practising one way with your team and your instincts are tuned to that.

"Controlling that and repeatedly telling your mind and body to adapt is challenging. That's why I started training for Tests during the IPL itself. That's when I began preparing my mind and body."

Coming to the Edgbaston Test, England went to stumps at 77/3, trailing India in the first innings by 510 runs. Akash Deep, replacing Jasprit Bumrah in the XI at Edgbaston, dismissed Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope for ducks while Mohammed Siraj got rid of Zak Crawley on 19.

(With PTI Inputs)