Sara Tendulkar became a butt of jokes following India opener Shubman Gill's maiden T20I hundred against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

Shubman Gill is reportedly in a relationship with Sara Tendulkar – both regularly featured on each other's Instagram profiles not so long ago.

With Sara Tendulkar's father, Sachin Tendulkar, present at the Narendra Modi Stadium the previous night, fans had more fun trolling the father-daughter duo, with netizens labeling the legendary batter as Shubman Gill's “father-in-law”.

On the other hand, a few posted hilarious memes on Sara Tendulkar, showing her garlanding Shubman Gill, while some used the climax of Shah Rukh Khan's film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) to mock her on Twitter.

 

With his scintillating knock against the Black Caps in Gujarat, Shubman Gill became the youngest men’s cricketer to score hundreds in all three formats of the game. At 23 years and 146 days, he accomplished the feat against Kiwis in the third T20I.

He also joined a select band of Indian players who have made hundreds across all formats. Before him, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, and KL Rahul were the only Indians to reach the milestone.

Moreover, Gill is the youngest Indian batter to hit a T20I hundred, going past Suresh Raina’s previous mark, who achieved the landmark in 23 years and 156 days.

If this wasn’t enough, Shubman Gill added another feather to his cap as he leapfrogged Virat Kohli to have the highest score by an Indian in T20Is. The former India captain scored an excellent 122 off 61 balls against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup in September last year.

The youngster was positive from the outset as he cracked boundaries early in his innings before clobbering Lockie Ferguson for 11 runs in an over.

Afterward, Shubman Gill went berserk as he began dealing in boundaries and sixes, but his all-out assault on the New Zealand bowlers only came after he completed his half-century. Later, Rahul Tripathi and Suryakumar Yadav perished after scoring 44 off 22 and 24 off 13 balls, leaving Gill to go ballistic in his attack.

Gill struck back-to-back sixes against Benjamin Lister before smashing two more maximums against Blair Tickner to cruise into the 90s. He brought up his maiden T20I century with a powerful cover drive off Lockie Ferguson and collected another 17 runs in the 19th over to take India past the 200-mark. The Men in Blue eventually finished with a mammoth total of 234/4.

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Chasing a massive score, New Zealand never looked threatening during the run chase as they lost their openers in the first two overs and half their side inside the initial powerplay. Later, Hardik Pandya and his boys bowled them out for 66, registering their biggest victory in T20Is by a massive margin of 168 runs.

Meanwhile, an ecstatic Shubman Gill was happy to tick another box on his resume with his maiden T20I hundred against the Kiwis.

“It feels good when you practise and it pays off. Happy to get the big ones for the team. Everybody has a different technique to hit sixes. Hardik bhai told me to bat the way I do, and that there is no need to do anything extra. When you are representing your country, I don't think there's any kind of fatigue, and I am happy to play all three formats,” Gill said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

The Punjab-born player's splendid batting earned him immense praise from ex-India coach Sanjay Bangar.

“He showed caution in the first part of the innings and then the brutal part, the second half of the innings, he had a tremendous mix of caution and aggression. He is not somebody who has believes in those fancy strokes. He has played cricketing shots, targeted straight of the ground or towards mid-wicket, square leg or covers. He has been brilliant to watch,” Sanjay Bangar told the host broadcaster Star Sports.

“This is the new generation. And the kind of power Shubman possesses, the positions that he gets in helps him score runs without even breaking a sweat. You are going to see a lot of him in the coming years,” he mentioned.

Comparing Shubman Gill with Virat Kohli, former India pacer Irfan Pathan said that the young batter had the potential to play all three formats for the national team and replicate the former skipper's lofty standards.

“The way he is batting, I am a huge fan of his. I am repeatedly saying that he can become an all-format player for you. Virat Kohli ruled all formats for many years, this batter has as much potential. To convert that into performance is a different thing,” Irfan Pathan said.

“That happens with time but Shubman Gill has started to do that. He scored his first century in August. Gill has now scored a total of six centuries in international cricket and we have just started February, where all other players have scored just four international centuries,” Irfan Pathan added.