When Shubman Gill was asked during the post-match presentation what he had learned about his team over the six weeks, the Indian skipper replied with an uplifting smile: ‘That we never give up.’
That perfectly captured the character of this series, writes Megh Mandaliya.
It was the kind of contest that would sit alongside Roger Federer vs Rafa Nadal debates.
It had every ingredient of a classic: resilience, tight margins, and firm determination from both sides.
After 25 days of intense, hard-fought cricket, the series still hasn’t crowned a champion.
Both teams fought tooth and nail and England are yet to defeat India in a Test series since 2018.
The five-Test match series ends locked at 2-2, like a cliffhanger with no upcoming episode.
The Series
England kicked off the series with their second-biggest successful run chase in Test history, while the visitors wrapped it up with a tense six-run win, which also happens to be their narrowest victory ever recorded in the format.
Rarely has a series kept fans hooked for this long as all five matches went the full five days, a feat not seen since the 2017-18 Ashes and only the fourth time since 2000.
Labelling this as a batter-dominated series wouldn’t be an exaggeration as it aggregated 7187 runs across five games.
That is just 34 runs shy of the 1993 Ashes in England, which saw 7221 runs in six Test matches.
The unusually-kind English conditions and wickets with no demons also helped equal a 70-year-old record, as England and India batters combined for 21 individual centuries, levelling the highest total in a Test series, which was initially set by West Indies and Australia in 1955.
Shubman Gill
Amid much pre-series chatter about Gill, the 25-year-old has decisively silenced his critics with consistent brilliance.
He amassed 754 runs in 10 innings, surpassing Sunil Gavaskar’s 47-year-old record of most runs (732) by an India captain in a Test series.
The right-handed batter also became the first Indian to score over 700 runs in a Test series in England and only the second captain after Sir Don Bradman to achieve this feat.
Joe Root, on the other hand, continued his dream run by adding three more centuries to his tally and now sits just behind Sachin Tendulkar on the all-time run-scorers list in the format.
Bowlers
It wasn’t the kind of series bowlers dream of but they still found ways to make an impact when it counted most.
Mohammed Siraj and Chris Woakes shouldered the bulk of the workload for their respective sides, sending down 185.3 and 181 overs respectively across the series.
In Jasprit Bumrah’s absence, Siraj rose to the occasion – taking 16 wickets in just four innings at an average of 19.81, and matching his idol’s record for the most wickets by an Indian in a Test series in England (23 wickets in nine innings).
Woakes may rank seventh on the wicket-takers list, but his true value lay in control, conceding just 3.17 runs per over across the five Tests, which played a key factor in England’s efforts to contain India’s batting.
Oval Test
The Oval Test match was a fitting conclusion to this series packed with drama.
For much of the final innings, the momentum belonged to England, even when Gus Atkinson was pushing an injured Woakes to dash between the wickets.
The Harry Brook-Joe Root stand, which was the third highest fourth-innings partnership (195) for any wicket at The Oval, did bring back haunting memories for India of the Jonny Bairstow-Joe Root onslaught at Edgbaston in 2022.
But India’s pacers kept chipping away, refusing to back down.
In the end, all it took was one 143kph bullet from Siraj to knock over a resilient England and seal the series deadlock.
READ MORE: England beaten in thriller as India secure series draw with six-run victory
