England against India: The story of a breathtaking Test series in 10 pictures

New York Times

2 days ago

Was England vs India the best Test series since the 2005 Ashes? Maybe. You'd struggle to dismiss anyone who argued that it was.
It was one that had everything. Brilliant, generational performances with the bat. Thrilling, electric performances with the ball. At times shambolic fielding. Clearly wounded and semi-immobile players ignoring the pain in their bodies to go out there anyway. A sense of genuine antipathy between the two sides, regardless of how both seemed keen to play that down. Play on all 25 days of the series. Implausible finishes.
As such, it was a series that produced some incredible visuals; photos that will be remembered for years to come and debated at length. We've picked 10 of them — pictures that encapsulate the defining moments of an astonishing few weeks of cricket.
On the list of most runs scored by an individual player in a single men's Test series, there are some impressive names: Don Bradman, Brian Lara, Everton Weekes, Wally Hammond, Steve Smith, Sunil Gavaskar, Alastair Cook. Among the greatest to have played the game, in other words. Shubman Gill, who scored 754 in 10 innings, is 19th on the list, but that total is the most by an Indian batter in England, the most by a visiting Asian batter in England, and only 20 short of Smith's astonishing 2019 Ashes.
Advertisement
But if you look at some of the names on that list, not all of them are exactly aesthetes' choices.
There are some real grinders there, players who relentlessly produced runs but you might not remember many shots they played. Gill, on the other hand, is one of the most delicious cover drivers around, a player you could watch all day and not necessarily care about the runs he scored. What's even more remarkable is that the first Test of this series was his first as captain and just his second senior match — of any format — in England: he played one Test in 2022 and scored 21 runs over two innings.
He was a boy then, but showed up this summer a man.
If you could spend the day inside the head of one cricketer, you'd have to choose Rishabh Pant.
He's a player who simply does not recognise either convention or the concept of consequences; sometimes doughtily blocking for 30 balls, sometimes skipping down the pitch to the first ball he faces and swinging off his toes. An amateur psychologist might link this to the horrific car crash he survived a few years ago but kept him out of cricket for 18 months, the idea that getting out in a cricket match doesn't really matter by comparison — but he was like this before the accident.
Pant scored centuries in both innings of the first Test at Headingley, celebrating with a front flip, but we've chosen this picture of his bat flying from his hand at Headingley to encapsulate the chaos that surrounds his game.
This was one of two occasions he'd sent his bat into the outfield in that knock, the second of which saw the end of an extraordinary innings which also featured him sweeping an 85mph ball from Josh Tongue for six, plus several examples of his trademark fall-over scoop, and England dropping him twice. Box office.
The brilliant cricket would have been enough to sustain this series, but the needle and ill feeling, however much both sides tried to play down its significance, gave it an extra edge.
The high point (or low point, depending on how pious you are) came on the evening of day three at Lord's, when England had seven minutes to survive before the close of play and were determined to face just one over. Zak Crawley's delaying tactics were blatant and pretty undignified, but the sight of Gill wagging his finger in the England opener's face and instructing him to 'grow some balls' did ring slightly hollow given Gill had held up things earlier in the game as he received a back massage on the field.
Advertisement
Crawley, upon being struck in the loose vicinity of his finger, called for treatment from the physio in order to really string things out, which led to maybe the best delivery of a line of the series from England bowling coach Tim Southee, who deadpanned: 'He'll be assessed overnight, and hopefully he'll be alright to carry on tomorrow.'
Maybe the more positive, or even appropriate, image of Jofra Archer from this series would have been the roar of ecstasy after dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal in his first over of Test cricket in four years. There were so many electric moments in the series, but Lord's was buzzing at a difference frequency for that one.
However, we've chosen this one, of Archer giving Washington Sundar a good send-off after taking a sensational caught and bowled as England hunted victory. Partly for visual reasons: England were incredibly aggressive that morning, swarming around the batters, and this picture shows that perfectly. But it's also a warning about the dangers of hubris.
One of the reasons England were so pumped up was that Sundar had declared the previous evening that India would probably win the game 'by lunchtime' on the final day.
Actually, if you watch Sundar's interview, he was lightly goaded into his prediction by the Sky Sports interviewers, and his tongue was in his cheek, but as he walked off to the sound of Archer screaming at him, he probably still chalked that one up as 'lesson learned'.
Ideally, you'd want to win a Test match thanks to a piece of brilliance with either bat or ball, but when the opposition is closing in and only 20-odd runs away from an unlikely victory, you take what you can get.
And in this case, it was a remarkably unlucky piece of physics: Siraj defending the ball in a way that inadvertently imparted the exact type and amount of spin that would take it in front of him, then dart back around his legs with just — just — enough force to knock one bail from the stumps.
Siraj looked horrified. Ravinder Jadeja, at the other end, looked crushed. Shoaib Bashir, the bowler involved who was playing with the broken finger that would rule him out of the rest of the series, belted away towards the Grandstand in celebration.
After play on the first evening of the third Test, England vice-captain Ollie Pope commented that part of his job was to ensure Stokes did not over-exert himself. That he needed to essentially protect the England captain from his own excesses. All the best with that.
Stokes's willingness to drive himself into the ground is one of his best and worst qualities, embodying the spirit that makes him such an incredible cricketer, but also ensuring that — sooner or later — he's going to break down.
Advertisement
At Old Trafford he did just that, bowling and bowling and bowling as England strove for a victory: it was admirable, but also obvious that we were watching an injury happen in real time, Stokes grimacing and grunting with pain as he ran in, his right arm useless by the end. And so it was, Stokes suffering a tear in his shoulder muscle that ruled him out of the fifth Test.
After Chris Woakes dislocated his shoulder, England had essentially to operate with two and a half bowlers in that fifth Test (depending on how harshly you rate Jamie Overton) and his replacement at No 6, Jacob Bethell, scored 11 runs across his two knocks, so Stokes's absence was almost certainly the difference between England winning or losing that Test. And, as such, winning or drawing the series.
The symbol of England's arrogance? An example of India's self-entitlement? A handy incident on which people can project their own previously held prejudices and was nowhere near as big a deal as some made it out to be?
When Ben Stokes approached Indian batters Jadeja and Sundar, both approaching centuries, to offer the traditional 'call it a draw' handshake at the end of the Old Trafford Test, there followed some pretty weak banter and some fairly immature scenes as England insisted the game come to a close on their terms and India extended it beyond its natural conclusion as they hunted personal milestones.
And then came the discourse, much of it considered, some of it tediously pompous, but ultimately it all fed into the narrative of a series with genuine edge.
Undignified? Yes, more so for England. Slightly unnecessary? Undoubtedly. But entertaining? Oh yes.
Joe Root was a pall-bearer at Graham Thorpe's funeral last year. He credits Thorpe, who championed his cause and was on England's coaching staff for nearly a decade, with making him the batter he is today.
Quite apart from the professional debt, Root also talks about Thorpe with a great deal of personal affection. All of which means it shouldn't necessarily be a surprise that Root paid tribute to his old mentor after reaching his hundred on Sunday at the Oval, but it's still remarkable that he had the compassion and clarity of thought to choose the moment of his 39th Test century not to soak up the personal glory, but mark the contribution of the man who helped him get there.
Sport is not overburdened with good men. Joe Root is one of them.
Chris Woakes made his Test debut at the Oval in 2013, but it would be pretty sad if his career is bookended by appearances in south London.
In the end, Woakes didn't actually do anything on Monday to tangibly impact the match after emerging from the dressing room with his left arm in a sling, further trussed to his body by a jumper. But it was the symbolism more than anything else, an extreme manifestation of his consistency and reliability: usually he's there when England need him with a ball in his hand, sending down those steady, nippy nibblers that have flummoxed so many batters over the years.
Advertisement
Here, it was with bat in hand, and 'hand' is the operative word, unable to use the standard two when batting.
It was a good job, in more than one sense, that he didn't have to face a ball: his face was contorted in pain, as this picture shows, after merely running from one end of the pitch to the other, so lord knows what would have happened had he been forced to actually bat.
He'll almost certainly have surgery now and won't make the Ashes, but hopefully he'll be back. Nobody wants this heroic, futile but ultimately quite sad sight to be the last we have of Chris Woakes.
Test match bowling these days is all about load management. You don't pick your best team in every game, even if the best bowlers are technically able to play, because you don't want to grind them into the ground. India brought Jasprit Bumrah with them but only picked him three times. England called up Archer for the second Test but he appeared only in the third and fourth.
Siraj laughs in the face of all that.
He was the only quick bowler on both sides to complete every Test, sending down 1,113 legal deliveries and finishing with 23 wickets at 32.43, but it's not the numbers that make him special. He took the winning wicket of the series with an 89mph yorker, but it was his force of personality as much as the delivery that did for England.
Siraj made his debut on India's 2020-21 tour of Australia, a young tearaway who surprised the world with his raw aggression. Four years later, he has the same intensity, now matched with nous, stamina and a will that is difficult to beat.
Click here to follow cricket on The Athletic and see more stories like this.