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Memory and history are tricksters, it is said. The recent imagery from Headingley, Leeds, of Jasprit Bumrah taking the lone five-wicket haul and his past record of bailing the Indian team out single-handedly on multiple occasions may have led many a supporter to believe that there was no world without the maverick pacer.
However, a winning cricket team is not always a collection of the 11 best players but a unit that is bigger than the sum of its parts. On Sunday at Edgbaston, Shubman Gill & Co., in Bumrah’s absence, reiterated one of elite sport’s eternal truths to record a magnificent 336-run victory over England in the second Test to level the series 1-1.
“A winning cricket team is not always a collection of the 11 best players but a unit that is bigger than the sum of its parts.”
| Photo Credit:
Alex Davidson/Getty Images
“A winning cricket team is not always a collection of the 11 best players but a unit that is bigger than the sum of its parts.”
| Photo Credit:
Alex Davidson/Getty Images
India’s biggest away triumph (in terms of runs), its first in Birmingham after seven defeats and a draw, and Gill’s first as Test captain was fashioned by a top-draw bowling performance on a largely placid day-five pitch, with Akash Deep—incidentally Bumrah’s replacement in the XI—earning his maiden Test fifer (six for 99) and finishing with career-best match figures of 10 for 187.
Play started an hour and 40 minutes late because of rain, and the number of overs available to India to bowl England out shrunk by 10 to 80. But nothing proved a hindrance as the visitor, cheered on by a large diaspora crowd, got the job done in 52.1 overs.
Needing 536 more on the day to chase down a near-impossible 608, England was bowled out for 271. Ever since Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have been in charge, England has been agnostic to draws and seen defeats as moral victories. Sunday’s reverse will be tough to categorise.
Akash led the charge with a high-quality opening spell (6-0-22-2), dismissing overnight batters Ollie Pope (24, 50b, 3×4) and Harry Brook (23, 31b, 3×4) in quick succession. Pope was done in by some extra bounce and the ball disturbed the stumps after coming off his gloves while Brook was trapped in front by a delivery that jagged back sharply and crashed into his back leg.
Stokes and first-innings centurion Jamie Smith resisted for 113 balls and partnered for 70 runs before Washington Sundar removed the England skipper at the stroke of Lunch with a perfect arm ball that thudded into his outstretched front pad.
After the break, spinners Washington and Ravindra Jadeja attacked and Gill applied concentric circles of pressure. Silly-point, short-leg, first-slip and the wicketkeeper formed the first ring of fire while point, cover, mid-off, mid-on, mid-wicket and the ‘keeper comprised the second. But Smith broke out of the shackles by hitting straight down the ground repeatedly and manipulating the gaps behind square on the off-side.
Gill then introduced pace and was soon rewarded, with Prasidh Krishna getting Chris Woakes to top-edge a half-hearted pull that left England at 199 for seven. But Smith grew in confidence at the other end and it came as no surprise when Gill brought out his now-patented plan of bowling short and stationing catching men on the fence.
Akash, instead of Prasidh, was tasked by his leader and Smith responded by hitting the Bengal pacer for back-to-back sixes over deep backward square-leg and deep mid-wicket. But a third attempt landed in the safe palms of Washington and halted the dashing wicketkeeper-batter’s journey at 88 (99b, 9×4, 4×6) to go with his unbeaten 184 from the first essay.
Josh Tongue was caught superbly by a diving Mohammed Siraj at short mid-wicket off Jadeja before Akash and Gill, the two stand-out performers for India, combined to have Brydon Carse caught at cover and give India a tremendous push ahead of the Lord’s Test starting Thursday.
