when India walks out to Old Trafford Cricket Stadium in Manchester, they will fight to stay alive in the series, having gone 2-1 down after a defeat at Lord’s, and another defeat will break their dreams of winning a Test series on English soil for the first time in 18 years.
Ironically, it is the same venue where India had arrived four years ago, 2-1 up in the series for the fifth Test with one hand on the trophy. However, what followed was unprecedented as India’s dream was shattered and the day ended up changing Indian cricket forever.
The 2021 Manchester Test – The Match That Never Was
India came into the Manchester Test on an all-time high in Test cricket. After the inspirational victory in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), the Indian team were playing some of their best cricket and produced one of their all-time great victories in Test cricket at Lord’s under Virat Kohli’s captaincy before a memorable win at the Oval.
The win in the fourth Test had put India on the cusp of the series victory with the hosts down and out, but the victory in the Oval.
However, that was a time when the world was still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and mid-way through the win at Oval, head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive for COVID-19. Later, bowling coach Bharun Arun and fielding R Sridhar also were diagnosed with the virus.
Then arrived the red-letter day of 10th September 2021, where minutes before the match was about to start, the BCCI and ECB announced the game was postponed.
It emerged that India’s assistant physiotherapist had also tested positive, sparking fears of more cases in the team as several players were dealing with niggles.
While what exactly conspired behind closed doors remains a mystery, and what the players wanted to do is still to be known but the incident came in the backdrop of the 2021 IPL’s restart in the UAE, which was just days with players required to quarantine on arrival in the country.
A Shattered Dream
The incident resulted in India losing the chance to win a Test series on English soil as the two boards decided to complete the series almost a year later with a one-off match in Edgbaston. 10 months later, there were massive changes in both sides, with both coming with new captains and coaches. England secured a victory after chasing down a huge total of 377 in the fourth innings to draw level in the series, which ended 2-2. The hosts also retained the Pataudi Trophy, having won it 4-1 in 2018.
Indian Cricket Feels The Aftershocks
Within the week of the match being cancelled and the restart of the IPL, Indian cricket had seen a tectonic change. The squad for the 2021 T20 World Cup was announced, two days before the drama in Manchester with the then BCCI secretary Jay Shah announcing the surprise move to appoint MS Dhoni as the mentor to assist head coach Ravi Shastri and captain Kohli.
A few days later (16th September), Kohli posted on social media announcing his resignation from India’s T20I captaincy, stating that he wants to stay in charge of the ODI and Test team.
Kohli’s last assignment in T20Is as Indian captain proved a disaster as India crashed out in the group stage of the 2021 T20 World Cup with a first-ever defeat in a ‘World Cup’ (ODI or T20) to Pakistan.
However, this will only be the start of one of Indian cricket’s biggest controversies as Kohli would be removed from the top job in ODI cricket a couple of months later as BCCI stated the need to have the same captain for both white-ball formats, where Rohit Sharma took charge.
What followed was a fiery Virat Kohli press conference in which he and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly contradicted each other on the version of events that led to the decision.
A month later, after India’s tour of South Africa, Kohli stepped down from captaincy in Test cricket following a seven-year tenure, in which he became India’s most successful captain in the longest format.
The Indian Test Team’s Decline
The incident at Manchester also marked the end of Indian cricket’s golden era in Test cricket, with the results nose-diving in the aftermath. Months later, India will travel to South Africa in Kohli’s last assignment in the longest format, with many tipping it as the best chance for a maiden series in the rainbow nation for the country. India even took a 1-0 lead in the series but lost the last two games, and the wait continued.
Since 10th September 2021, India has just 18 wins in 37 matches, with their win/loss (W/L) rate the fourth best in the world in this period. Since Kohli took charge of the Test team on a full-time basis in January 2015 till 9th September 2021, India’s W/L was the best in the world with 42 wins in 69 matches
Best Win/Loss Rate In Test Cricket (1st January 2015 to 9th September 2021)
| Team | Played | Won | Loss | Draw | W/L |
| India | 69 | 42 | 15 | 12 | 2.800 |
| New Zealand | 51 | 28 | 15 | 8 | 1.866 |
| Australia | 62 | 32 | 21 | 9 | 1.523 |
| South Africa | 56 | 26 | 23 | 7 | 1.130 |
| England | 88 | 39 | 36 | 13 | 1.083 |
Best Win/Loss Rate In Test Cricket (10th September 2021 – Present)
| Team | Played | Won | Loss | Draw | W/L |
| Australia | 43 | 28 | 8 | 7 | 3.500 |
| England | 30 | 19 | 9 | 2 | 2.111 |
| South Africa | 47 | 25 | 18 | 4 | 1.388 |
| India | 37 | 18 | 15 | 4 | 1.200 |
| Sri Lanka | 30 | 14 | 14 | 2 | 1.000 |
The White-Ball Resurgence
However, it was not all doom and gloom as the move to bring Rohit to the leadership role in white-ball cricket paid off as India managed to end their 11-year wait for an ICC trophy. After a sub-par campaign in the 2022 T20 World Cup, which saw them being thrashed in the semi-final against England, India produced three all-timer campaigns.
In the 2023 World Cup, they were unbeaten with 10 victories in a row before a heartbreaking defeat in the final. While they missed the chance to lift the crown on home soil, the Men in Blue lifted the 2024 T20 World Cup and 2025 Champions Trophy under Rohit’s captaincy and won both competitions without losing a game.
Ironically, the biggest heartbreak in the pursuit of a global title in Kohli’s captaincy also came in Manchester when India lost the thrilling 2019 World Cup semi-final to New Zealand at the same ground.
Coincidence or correlation? Would Indian cricket have been the same had that match been played in Manchester been played the day? That remains up for debate.