As the Indian team set its sail bound for England – critics were vociferous in saying that this was the weakest batting and poor bowling line-up to tour UK. Happy that this young team has proved them wrong.
In 4 innings, they have scored very well and today – day 5 at Birmingham in test no. 2591 (after losing the 1st test of the Series) – England still were speaking about a possible win. Marcus Trescothick , England's assistant coach talked about England's situation ahead of day 5 of the ongoing Edgbaston clash against India stating that their side would still probably push for a win when 536 were still needed with 7 wickets in hand.
This morning it appeared as though rain may play spoil-sport as storms pushed the start time to 12.40 pm – curtailing 10 of allotted 90 overs .. .. in a test where 1692 runs were scored, India won !
Sasaram
is a historical city and a municipal
corporation region in the Rohtas district of Bihar state. The city served as
the capital of the Sur dynasty during Sher Shah Suri's rule over India in the
16th century, and was residence place sub capital of epic monarch Sahastrabahu
(Kartivirya Arjuna). Sasaram and the
Kaimur Range contain waterfalls, lakes, rivers and picturesque locations. During
the Vedic age, Sasaram was a part of the ancient Kashi kingdom. Sasaram's name
derives from Sahastrarama, meaning "one thousand groves". It is the birthplace of the Afghan king Sher
Shah Suri, who ruled over Delhi, much of northern India, present-day Pakistan,
and eastern Afghanistan for five years as the Sur Empire, after defeating the
Mughal Emperor Humayun. Many of Sher Shah Suri's governmental practices were
adopted by the Mughals and later the British Raj, including taxation,
administration, and the building of a paved road from Kabul to Bengal, also
called the Grand Trunk Road.
In Dec 2024, at Gabba, Indian fans roared as though the match had been won - in the dressing room, Virat Kohli shared high-fives and captain Rohit Sharma had a huge smile on his face. "It's always nice to see your bowlers going out there scoring some runs," said KL Rahul. Trailing by 193 runs is little cause for celebration, yet!!! – for a team that has just lost a Test badly and in dire straits in this – avoiding follow-on was sort of winning a game within the game ! Mind it has been a rain marred game, yet India could have easily lost the plot. That day, when Ravindra Jadeja hooked Pat Cummins to deep square-leg, he was brilliantly caught by Mitchell Marsh, India needed 33 to avoid the follow-on as Akash Deep (Test average 6.42) walked out to join Jasprit Bumrah (Test average of 6.97). Akash played a cameo saving the Test is history as he made a bigger history today at Birmingham.
The score card happily reads : India 587 (Gill 269, Jadeja 89, Jaiswal 87, Bashir 3-167) and 427 for 6 dec (Gill 161, Jadeja 69, Pant 65, Rahul 55, Tongue 2-93) beat England 407 (Smith 184, Brook 158, Siraj 6-70, Akash Deep 4-88) and 271 (Smith 88, Akash 6-99) by 336 runs.
At Birmingham, the Captain Shubman Gill and coach Gautam Gambhir started with an existential crisis of leaving out Jasprit Bumrah, conserving him for the later part of the Series, lost the toss, woke up to see storm lashing – yet India beat England by a colossal huge margin of 336 runs in this 2nd test.
The man of the match fittingly was Shubman Gill for this 269 & 161 – the unlikely hero was this bowler from Sasaram in Bihar. Akash was initially dissuaded to play cricket by his father, but he left for Durgapur, West Bengal, in 2010 with the pretext of finding a job and found support from his uncle to join a local cricket academy. However, family tragedies forced him to leave the game for three years. Today, fittingly, it was Akash Deep, Bumrah's "replacement", who capped off India's dominance. A maiden five-wicket haul of 6 for 99, dismissed England for 271 in their second innings. He took 10 in the match, becoming only the second Indian bowler since Chetan Sharma in 1986, to use English conditions to such devastating effect. Fittingly, Gill took the catch for the final wicket, off Akash, both celebrating wildly themselves before meeting for a hug before both were engulfed by gleeful team-mates.
The
scale of defeat made a mockery of the notion England might have fancied chasing
a target of 608. At no point were they in with any chance. Gill is one of nine batters with a century and
a double-century in a Test. Among Indians, only Gavaskar had done the double
before Gill.
Well played Team India
Regards – S Sampathkumar
6.7.2025
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