Cricket on display during England series a matter of pride: Gautam Gambhir
(You can now subscribe to our
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel
London: India head coach Gautam Gambhir said touring England has always been a challenging assignment, but asserted that the quality of cricket in the ongoing series has made "every cricket lover proud."Gambhir was addressing a gathering at the India House on Monday evening to express gratitude for the fans' support during the course of the series, which saw the visitors pull off a dramatic draw in the fourth Test at Manchester."Touring this part of the world has always been challenging because of the history between the two countries, which can never be forgotten," said Gambhir during his speech."Whenever we have toured the UK, the kind of support we have got, we cherish every bit of it. We never take anything for granted."Last five weeks have been really exciting for both countries with the kind of cricket that has been on display, which I'm sure has made every cricket lover proud," he added.The Indian cricket team received a rousing welcome from community leaders, parliamentarians and sports fans at a diaspora reception hosted by the High Commission of India in London, where the squad is set for the fifth and final Test against England at The Oval from Thursday.He went on to highlight the importance of the fifth and final Test, which India needed to win to level the series that now stands 2-1 in favour of England."Both the teams have thrown a lot of punches and have fought for every inch. We have got one more week to go, one final push to make and one more opportunity to make our country and people out here proud," said Gambhir.The players were cheered enthusiastically by the crowd as some of the highlights from their recent games were played out on screen.Vikram Doraiswami, India's High Commissioner to the UK, said the fighting spirit the team showed during the series was a just reflection of the country's will to fight the odds."It's been a great series, played in the best of spirit. But the best bit of it all is the fact that we have a chance to see Test cricket played the way it is intended to be - contests for full five days, contests that have gone to the wire, contests in which the great sense of cricket as a game that is played with intensity for five days."And to have our team here display what is truly the range of skills but also the fighting spirit that is now associated with Team India is also a great reflection of the fighting spirit that now stands for the new India that we are all privileged to represent here," said Doraiswami."No matter what happens (in the final Test), we couldn't be more proud of who you (Team India) are, what you represent, where you came from and what you mean to all of us," he said.Richard Gould, chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), referenced the India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed off during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's UK visit last week as a sign of the immense scope of collaboration between the two nations, including sports."In four Test matches so far, every one of them has gone deep into the fifth day...It's difficult to remember a Test series that has really resounded as deeply as this one has, both in England and back in India, and we are all really looking forward to seeing the battle recommence at The Oval on Thursday," said Gould.The diaspora gathering concluded with a brief in-conversation session moderated by commentator and former head coach Ravi Shastri with a few players including captain Shubman Gill "Before the start of the series, I felt I haven't really shown my best and I was working quite hard on my game before the series as I wanted to prove myself," said Gill, with reference to his over 700 runs notched up during the series so far."It was a very hard-fought game of cricket over the past four days," he added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
27 minutes ago
- NDTV
Murali Sreeshankar Wins Long Jump Title In Kazakhstan
Star long jumper Murali Sreeshankar clinched his third straight title after coming back from a long injury lay-off as he won the event at the Qosanov Memorial Athletics Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Saturday. The 26-year-old Indian produced a winning leap of 7.94m on his opening attempt to secure the top spot at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze label (category C) meet. His other efforts were 7.73m, 7.58m, 7.57m, 7.80m and 7.79m. He has a personal best of 8.41m. This was Sreeshankar's third competition since returning from a knee injury, which he suffered in April last year. He had undergone surgery and consequently missed the 2024 Olympics despite qualifying for the global showpiece in the French capital. Sreeshankar won the Indian Open in Pune with a jump of 8.05m jump in his first comeback competition and followed it up with a 7.75m effort to top the podium at the Meeting Maia Cidade do Desporto in Portugal. Before injury, Sreeshankar's last international appearance was a silver-medal finish at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in 2023. He is yet to qualify for the Tokyo World Championships in September, for which the men's long jump qualification standard is 8.27m.
India.com
27 minutes ago
- India.com
Rohit Sharma Makes Surprise Appearance During IND vs ENG 5th Test At Oval
India's ODI skipper Rohit Sharma made a surprise appearance at The Oval during day three of the ongoing fifth Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Test between the visitors and England. Television cameras caught Rohit's arrival at the venue and later showed him watching his side bat during the opening session. Rohit, dressed in a casual black denim shacket and jeans, appeared relaxed as he followed the proceedings. The broadcast cameras returned to him towards the end of the first session, prompting former Australia women's cricketer Mel Jones to say on air, "He would be pretty happy with what he has been seeing this morning." Notably, it is also the first time since announcing his retirement from the longest format in May this year that Rohit was spotted in the stands of a Test match. Spotted alongside Rohit was Akash Ambani, the Mumbai Indians owner. Special guest at the Kennington Oval! Updates | #ENGvIND | @ImRo45 — BCCI (@BCCI) August 2, 2025 On May 7, Rohit announced his retirement from Tests with immediate effect, ending a career where he amassed 4,301 runs from 67 Tests at an average of 40.57, including hitting 12 centuries and 18 fifties. Rohit also led India in 24 Tests, winning 12 and losing nine games. Rohit averaged a wonderful 42.81 in 66 innings as an opener in Tests, including hitting nine centuries and eight fifties. He also oversaw India becoming runners-up in 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) final after losing to Australia at The Oval. Earlier in June 2024, Rohit had announced his retirement from T20Is after India beat South Africa by seven runs to win the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup. Fans will have to wait until October 2025 to see the 'Hitman' back in action, as India are not scheduled to play any ODIs before then. Both Rohit and Virat Kohli - who has also stepped away from Test and T20Is - are expected to return for the ODI leg of India's white-ball tour of Australia, starting on October 19 at Perth Stadium, and is followed by matches at Adelaide Oval and Sydney Cricket Ground on October 23 and 25 respectively.
NDTV
27 minutes ago
- NDTV
5th Test, Day 3: Mohammed Siraj Strikes At Stroke Of Stumps, England 1 Down In Chase Of 374 vs India
Yashasvi Jaiswal enhanced his reputation as an all-conditions opener with a gutsy hundred on a tough pitch before Washington Sundar's whirlwind fifty allowed India to set a record 374-run target for England on an absorbing day three of the final Test at The Oval, London on Saturday. Jaiswal (118 off 164) rode his luck to complete his sixth Test hundred while the other significant contributions came from nightwatchman Akash Deep (66 off 94), Washington (53 off 46) and Ravindra Jadeja (53 off 77), who has been phenomenally consistent with the bat this series. The highest successful chase is 263 at The Oval but with the way England approach their game, one would not bet against the hosts just yet, having made short work of a 378 run target against India at Edgbaston three years ago and more recently the 371 they gunned down in the series opener at Leeds. At stumps, England were 50 for one loss in 13.5 overs with Mohammed Siraj castling Zak Crawley with a yorker at the stroke of stumps. The pitch did not look as green as it did on the first two days but still had enough for the fast bowlers. Akash Deep got a couple of balls to jump off length in the last hour of play. India were all out for 396 in the second innings courtesy the fireworks from Washginton Sundar displayed exemplary six hitting skills against Gus Atkinson and Josh tongue. Having a scored his maiden Test hundred last week, Washington looked supremely confident as he put the opposition pacers to sword to swell India's lead. He reached his half-century by disdainfully Atkinson into the cow corner region. In the afternoon session, a gritty century from Jaiswal helped India extend their lead to 281 runs at tea. India lost three wickets in the session but more importantly reached 304 for six at the break. England continued to drop catches, taking their innings tally to six. Jaiswal (118 off 164), who was dropped twice on Friday, was given another life on day three. Fair to say, he made the most of the lifelines offered to him for his second hundred of the series. Shubman Gill (11 off 9) produced two sublime fours before falling to the incoming ball once again with Gus Atkinson removing the Indian captain first ball after lunch. With that, Gill ended the series with a staggering 754 runs, just 20 shy of Sunil Gavaskar's all time record by an Indian. Jaiswal, who got rich rewards for playing the cut shot, was eventually caught in third man region. Karun Nair was caught behind off Atkinson with the extra bounce surprising him. Earlier, nightwatchman Akash Deep smashed his way to a maiden half-century, frustrating a lacklustre England and putting India in a strong position at lunch. Resuming the day at 75 for two, India did exceedingly well to reach 189 for three at the break with Jaiswal and Akash Deep sharing a 107-run stand off 150 balls. The India pacer, who was on four overnight, was eventually dismissed by Jamie Overton towards the end of the session via a short ball he could not control, giving an easy catch to Gus Atkinson at point. A bowler short, England could not control the run flow against Akash Deep who slashed his bat plenty of times in the session and got away with it. A fourth catch of the innings was dropped when Zak Crawley dropped a regulation catch of Akash Deep at third slip off Josh Tongue. The surface also played a lot better than the first two days with the ball not seaming around that much. There plenty of edges down the third man region but did not result in wickets. Akash Deep, who had just one first class fifty to his name prior to this game, made his intentions clear in the first over of the day bowled by left-arm spinner Jacob Bethell. The Indian cleared his leg and dispatched Bethell over mid-wicket for a boundary. Akash Deep did not hold against the fast bowlers as well, especially Atkinson. He got to his fifty with another slog off Atkinson. He was understandably fired up with his stellar effort that was duly applauded by the Indian dressing room. Jaiswal, at the other end, was happy to let Akash Deep go for his shots. However, he did play a ramp off Overton that went for a boundary.
