Going into the final day of the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy, England needed 35 runs to win the game with four wickets in hand. Chasing 374, England were in a bit of a pickle at 105/3; however, the counter-attacking partnership between Harry Brook and Joe Root was taking the game away from India until late evening on Day 4 when both fell. Although England were slightly ahead then India, Mohammed Siraj with an inspired spell helped India take a miserly 6-run win to level the series 2-2 on Day 5.
India has had three of its experienced players in Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and R Ashwin, retire from the format, and with a young, inexperienced captain, not many have given India a chance. “Yes, the scoreline shows 2-2. Michael Vaughan and many others predicted that it would be 3-1 or 3-0. I would tell them to look towards their side a bit and where England cricket stands. Our warriors have shown the level of Indian cricket,” Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh said on his YouTube channel.
“Unbelievable Test match and the way India have played the series, they deserve praise. When the team went to England, many people said it was young and there were no seniors. But see how the young team created history,” he added.
Indian skipper Shubman Gill has hailed the ‘young’ Indian Test team and shared how they wanted to be a ‘gun team’ and showed it on Monday.
“It means so much. This was a very hard-fought series. Both teams throwing punches and you could never really predict after day four who was going to win the match. We are a young team but before the start of the series, we spoke about how we didn’t want to be looked at as a young team. We wanted to be a gun team and I think we showed that today. (On Test cricket) Nothing beats it. It’s the most rewarding format. You work so hard over five days and even before the Test starts, there’s so many mental and physical challenges in this format. Once you’re able to succeed, it’s the most satisfying and rewarding format,” Gill told BBC’s Test Match Special.
