Pride, frenzy grips Shubman Gill’s village near India-Pakistan border: ‘Parents now encouraging their kids to play cricket’
Sitting at the village’s main corner, Ranga Ram, the sarpanch, is engaged in an intense discussion over the rates of wheat cultivation. It’s been a good crop this season here at Chak Kherewala, a tiny village in the border district of Fazilka.
The conversation is abruptly broken by an 11-year-old, who runs to them with breaking news: “Shubu paji India Test team de captain ban gaye (Shubu paji has been made the Indian Test team captain.” Lovedeep Singh studies at a government school bang opposite the most famous residence of the village: where the Gills live.
On Saturday, Shubman Gill was named the new captain of India’s Test team. And even though his family didn’t leave the confines of their home, there is chatter, excitement and pride at every corner of the quaint village, roughly 16km a...