Shubman Gill, after averaging 75 in his first-class career, made his debut in Test cricket for India in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), replacing his former U-19 teammate and captain Prithvi Shaw in the line-up in the opener's slot.
Playing for the first time in the longest format at the highest level, Gill looked like he belonged at this stage as he took on the Australia's pace attack consisting of the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
After playing good solid knocks of 45 and 35* in the first Test, Gill impressed one and all with temperament and strokeplay and kept his place in the team even when Rohit Sharma came into the XI at the expense of regular Test opener Mayank Agarwal for the third Test.
Playing in his second Test, Gill continued his form from the MCG games as he bettered his scores from the earlier game and amassed his maiden fifty of his career.
By the virtue of that knock, Gill became only the fourth youngest Indian batsman to score a maiden half-century outside Asia, behind the current Indian coach Ravi Shastri (20 years 44 days), who scored his maiden fifty in England in 1982, Madhav Apte (20 years 108 days) against West Indies and Prithvi Shaw (20 years 112 days) against New Zealand last year.
The 21-year old also became the youngest to achieve the milestone in Australia in Tests and across formats as Shastri slammed a fifty when he was 22 in the ODI and KL Rahul smashed a fifty in Australia when he was 28 years old in the T20Is.
Gill, in his 101-ball knock, smashed eight boundaries and stitched a 70-run opening stand with fellow opener Rohit Sharma to give India a great start after Australia made 338 runs in their first innings on the back of Steve Smith's 27th Test hundred.