Where There's A Gill…
Avijit Ghosh
TNN
Aug 04, 2025, 20:36 IST IST
The new Team India proved it's a squad of unrelenting fighters in tough English conditions. Now, management must give the young talents a longer rope
It happened again at the Oval. This is where Ajit Wadekar 's men had carved out India's historic, first-ever away victory over England in 1971. Nearly five-and-half decades later, Shubman Gill's young and fiery side produced a wondrous win in a Test where both the game's fate and the spectator's emotions swayed to unbearable extremes. Memories are made of this. The victory, by a T20-like margin of six runs which levelled the series 2-2, came from a position when all looked lost. The new Team India is a squad of unrelenting fighters.
What made this five-Test series an affair to remember is that neither side yielded an inch. England, under lynchpin-leader Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope for the fifth Test, were equally indefatigable. Stokes bowled with a grade three shoulder muscle tear. Woakes walked out to the pitch arm under a sling, wincing in pain. Bashir with a finger fracture produced a match-winning decisive delivery. Indians also battled past the pain barrier. Pant batted with a fractured foot, even struck an outrageous boundary off paceman Archer. At times cricket felt like a heavyweight boxing duel: bodies bruised, spirit unyielding.
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