'This Is Where Change Begins': What England Test Heroics Mean For Team India
The Oval Test would go down as a special one in the memory of every cricket fan as India beat England by six runs.
The Oval Test would go down as a special one in the memory of every cricket fan. India won an astonishing game by defending 35 runs on the final day. A young Indian team completely outplayed an experienced English attack. While the series stands at 2-2, the impact created by India's young side was far greater. Shubman Gill summed up Team India's transition. In the end, there were battered bodies, satiated souls, shared stories and a shared series. But the session charts clearly reveal that it was a series heavily tilted in favour of India. India won 33 sessions as against England's 22. Shubman Gill summed up his vision for the side telling Cheteshwar Pujara - "We do not want to be known as a young team but a gun team"
His mission in England complete. Captain Gill led from the front. He surpassed Sunil Gavaskar's record of 732 runs, setting a new benchmark for runs scored by an Indian captain in a Test series.
For the first time in history, three Indian batters—Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, and KL Rahul—all scored over 500 runs in a single Test series. Jadeja was the first player to score six half-centuries in a Test series between India and England.
It wasn't Jasprit Bumrah, but Mohammad Siraj was burning bright. He became the first Asian bowler to take four or more wickets in a Test match in England seven times.
Team India scored a mammoth 3,809 runs, the most ever scored by a team in a five-match Test series. Rishabh Pant began in a spectacular manner with back with back 100s in Leeds but faded out. Win or loss, his efforts- 479 runs with 2 hundreds and 3 half centuries, will go down as monumental.
Yashaswi Jaiswal stood like a wall when India needed him, scoring 411 runs
The team was hit by injuries to Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Nitish Reddy.
But after 25 days of intense test cricket, without Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or R Ashwin, by winning more sessions than England Team India has passed the English Test. At the end of an epic win win in Oval, KL Rahul summed it up perfectly.
“There were so many questions about whether Test cricket stays or not, but both answered with the way we've played. We weren't given a chance but we've fought in every game to get 2-2. It might be a draw, but for Indian Test cricket, this will rank right at the top, and this is where change begins,” Rahul said.
This was the first series after some of the biggest stars quit test cricket, a new look India team under a new captain added a new chapter in the folklore of Indian cricket
KL Rahul
England Cricket Team
India Cricket Team