India’s thrilling 2-2 Test series draw in England marked a new era post Kohli-Rohit-Ashwin retirements, featuring 7,187 runs, 21 centuries, and record milestones. Shubman Gill’s young team showed grit, sealing a dramatic win in the Oval decider.
The recently concluded Test series between England and India was filled with a lot of thrills, disappointments, and heartbreaks over a period of 25 days, with all five days of each match played across five venues, delivering the edge-of-the-seat and nail-biting action and unpredictable momentum shifts.
The 45-day tour concluded on Monday, August 8, with Team India clinching the thrilling victory in the fifth and final Test to draw the series 2-2. The Shubman Gill-led Team India sealed a dramatic six-run victory on the final day of the Oval Decider by bundling out England for 367 while they were chasing a 374-run target, thanks to the relentless bowling effort by Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, who picked nine wickets together to hand over the visitors a series draw.
With a victory at the Oval, Team India not only drew the five-match series 2-2 but also denied the hosts’ home Test series win for the second time on the trot after the 2021-22 series between both sides.
Thrilling Test series between England and India
The Test series between England and India has been touted as one of the thrilling thrilling in recent memory, featuring record–breaking performances, fiercely contested sessions, and unforgettable moments that manifested the true essence of Test cricket.
The five-match Test series started with England winning the opening game by five wickets at Headingley in Birmingham, despite India having four players score five centuries to set a 373-run target. However, the Shubman Gill-Team India made a comeback to script a historic victory by a mammoth 336 runs at Edgbaston.
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The Edgbaston Test victory was India’s first-ever win in the format at the venue, ending a 58-year winless streak in Birmingham. In the third Test at Lord’s, England pulled off a thrilling 22-run win to take a 2-1 series lead. India heartbreakingly fell 23 runs short of the 193-run target, despite a valiant effort by Ravindra Jadeja, who scored an unbeaten 61 off 181 balls.
In the fourth Test at Old Trafford in Manchester, Team India managed to salvage a thrilling draw, thanks to batting by Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, and Ravindra Jadeja, who guided the visitors to 425/4 to 0/2 and took a 114-run lead before agreeing to a draw to set up a series decider at the Oval.
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The series decider at the Oval delivered high-octane drama, as India edged past England by just six runs in an exhilarating finish, with Siraj and Prasidh Krishna’s combined nine-wicket haul sealing a memorable win and etching the series into cricketing folklore.
Mind-blowing stats that defined the England vs India Test series
As the Test series between England and India concluded with a thrilling and dramatic finish, it left behind a trail of staggering numbers and stats, all of which will go into the annals of cricket in the years to come. Here are mind-blowing stats that have defined the Test series between England and India:
- England and India accumulated 7,187 runs in the series, which is the most in a five-match Test series and the second overall in any Test series.
- India scored 3,807 in the Test series against England, the highest-ever in the five-match Test series.
- 21 centuries were registered in the Test series, joint-most in any Test series.
- India scored 12 centuries in a Test series against England, which is a joint record.
- England and India scored 50 fifty-plus scores, the joint-most in a Test series.
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- India had three players, including Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja, scoring 500+ in the England Test series, marking the first time an Indian trio achieved this milestone in a single Test series.
- In 3 out of the 5 Tests, the first-innings lead or deficit was less than 30 runs. This is very rare as only four Test series have featured three matches with such small first-innings gaps.
- This Test series witnessed 17 different players on the Honours Board for centuries and fifers, which is a record.
- -21 centuries and 8 five-wicket hauls, the record for the most combined individual milestones (29) in a single Test series.
- -45 times players were bowled out, which is the most in a Test series since 1984 and the most since 1976 in England.
India began a new Test Cricket era with the England Test Series Draw
Meanwhile, Team India has extended their unbeaten streak in a Test series against England since 2018, with India winning twice and drawing as many times.
The recently concluded Test series against England was the beginning of a new era for Indian Test Cricket after the retirements of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Kohli and Rohit stepped away from red-ball cricket before the India squad for the England tour was announced, while Ashwin called it quits from his international career midway through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in December last year.
The India squad had a mix of experienced and young players, with KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Karun Nair being the senior-most players in the squad.
Despite the absence of the stalwarts, the relatively young squad, led by Shubman Gill, carrying hopes and expectations, rose to the occasion with grit, resilience, and maturity to pull off the series draw, marking the dawn of a bold new era in Indian Test cricket.