Hyderabad: In 2023, Hyderabad saw what Shubman Gill could do with a bat. At just 23, he scored 208 against New Zealand and became the youngest man to hit a double century in a one-day international. A few months later, audiences heard him in a very different role. He was the voice of India’s own Spider-Man in the Hindi and Punjabi versions of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Those two moments help explain what stands out about Gill’s latest milestone. The Indian batter ranks 13th in SportsPro’s 2026 list of the world’s most marketable athletes. He is the only cricketer in the top 15, one place ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
What does it take to make the cut?
Consider the innings that put Gill in the record books. He scored 208 of India’s 349 runs that day, hitting 19 fours and nine sixes. By the time he walked off in the final over, he had scored more runs on his own than the rest of the Indian side combined. For anyone who watched him bat in Hyderabad, that is the innings his name brings to mind.
Then came a role that gave an entirely different audience a reason to know him. A moviegoer could walk into a Punjabi screening of Spider-Man without ever having watched an over of cricket and hear Gill bring a superhero to life. It was a particularly personal crossover for the batter, who said Spider-Man was the first superhero film he watched as a child.
That reach matters in a ranking that weighs the reputation an athlete has built, where their career is headed and how much further their appeal could grow. Gill earned his name playing a sport that has just one representative in this year’s top 15.
The fact that his name can now mean a record-breaking afternoon to a cricket fan and a familiar voice to a Spider-Man fan gives his 13th spot a story of its own.
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Source: The Siasat Daily
