Birmingham, Jul 3 (PTI): Shubman Gill became the first Indian and Asian captain to score a double hundred in a Test match in England when he completed his milestone on the second day of the second match at Edgbaston on Thursday.

The previous best was 193 by Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan at Lord’s in 2011.

Gill, who scored 147 on his debut as Test captain at Leeds, completed his maiden double hundred in the traditional format when he pulled Josh Tongue towards deep fine leg for a single.

He took 311 deliveries to reach his double hundred which earned him a place alongside MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni as captains with double hundreds for India.

Virat Kohli holds the record with seven double centuries as skipper for India.

Before Gill, the highest score by an Indian skipper in a SENA country was 192 by Mohammed Azharuddin against New Zealand in Auckland back in 1990.

Azharuddin's 179 in Manchester in 1990 was the highest score by an Indian skipper in England.

En route his double ton, Gill smashed 21 fours and two sixes and became the third Indian batter to score a double ton in Old Blighty after legendary pair of Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid.

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New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.

The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.

Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.

“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.

Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”

Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.

In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project.”

"Modi Sarkar spent Rs 76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS. Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to celebrate their centenary?," he added. 

According to reports, the RSS, founded in 1925, describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.