0 for 2 in five balls. 401 runs, 4 batters, 14.5 hours at the crease later, handshake offered. Handshake rejected. Two bats raised in well deserved celebrations. An applauding stadium. Eleven petulant athletes on the field turn their backs on the batters. Handshake offered. Handshake rejected. The teams walk off. Match over. ENGvIND 2025
It is perhaps entirely appropriate that Old Trafford, a ground that has witnessed some of the most iconic moments in the history of cricket, should be the one to host yet another extraordinary Test match. A match that also lays to rest, in no uncertain manner, the tribulations of those who despaired that the dramatic happenings leading to India’s 22-run loss at Lord’s could not be bettered.
When Shubman Gill loses the toss for the fourth straight time (making it 14th in a row by Indian captains) and is asked to bat, he has no inkling of the high drama that will ensue. And at 212 for 3, India is on its way to a large total.
Then disaster strikes. Rishabh Pant is hit on his shinbone by a yorker and stretchered off. The BCCI sends out a press release confirming he will play no further role in the series. But there is a twist in the plot yet to come. At 314 for 6 Pant limps down the stairs and back on to the field. He goes on to play the bravest cameo seen on a cricket field in many a year. In visible pain, he hobbles through for singles to help his partner rotate the strike. Eventually at 358 India is all out.
On the surface it seems like a decent enough total to work with. And then it all goes horribly wrong. England comes out to bat, Bazball is in play, and India is sent on a leather hunt. For the first time in the series, the Indian pacers get their lines and lengths wrong. Consistently. The harder they try, the worse they bowl. Shubman Gill stands at slip, looking helpless. Comparisons to Dhoni in 2011, frozen in inaction behind the stumps in India’s infamous 0-4 loss are invoked. England bats on. And on. And on. Joe Root puts up 150, Ben Stokes scores his first century in living memory, and England is finally dismissed for 669 after a day-and-a-half of batting.
India is 311 runs behind. When 5 balls into the second innings, the scorecard reads 0 for 2, an innings defeat, it appears, is all but a certainty.
Shubman Gill walks in. Jofra Archer bounces. Gill upper cuts. Woakes pitches it up. Gill drives. Dawson spins it into the stumps. Gill defends. Stokes brings it in from outside-off. Gill despatches it through mid-on. At the other end, Rahul stands tall, his every move making zen seem frenzied. It is as if the ball slows down as it nears him. Eight cumulative hours later, the pair is dismissed but not before putting up a partnership of 188.
And then Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja come together. For the next seven hours. They bat, and they bat, and they bat. Eventually, Ben Stokes, a man who never gives up, gives up. He walks across, hand extended, offering a draw. Jadeja politely declines. He is on 89, Sundar on 81. Gill stands by the dressing room window, and nods in agreement.
On the field, all hell breaks loose. The English fielders surround the two batters, first entreating them to shake hands, then demanding they do so. Jadeja smiles, then shrugs, and walks away from the sledges, the sarcasm and the petulance. Sundar looks on bemused. Eventually Stokes turns what has been a magnificent Test match into a farce as the centuries are scored against bowling a primary school batter would be embarrassed to face. Decades later, long after the 401 runs and 14.5 hours defense of India’s castle against an English siege machine at Old Trafford are long forgotten, the image of Ben Stokes’ uber extended and unaccepted hand will continue to endure as a lesson to captains of the future. It will be a reminder, as a meme this week on social media suggests, that they might do well to put off extending the olive branch until the other team has finished chopping wood.
At the Oval, England will be without Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse, but most importantly they will be missing the man who has been the difference between the two sides, skipper Ben Stokes. While India will be missing Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah, they will be on a high after surviving everything England could throw at them at Old Trafford. They will also be secure in the knowledge that without Stokes, England are a far less potent opponent.
In 2021 at Sydney, it was the brave defiance of Gill, Pujara, Vihari, Pant and Ashwin that had saved the Test and paved the way for a miracle at Gabba. At Old Trafford in 2025 it was the turn of Gill, Rahul, Pant, Sundar and Jadeja. As the teams move on to a final showdown, the series is poised for a finish as entertaining as 2021. In five days’ time, Shubman Gill and this young Indian team will seek to create their own Gabba moment at the Kennington Oval, where India won its first series victory against England in 1971. If they do, it will be the defining moment for India’s new generation of cricketers to continue the dominance their predecessors made their own. ENGvIND 2025 ENGvIND 2025
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