Manchester Test: A draw that felt like a win

India Today

28-07-2025

Not a failure to choose. But a quiet, dignified refusal to reduce everything to victory or defeat. We grow up taught to pick sides. One sweet or the other. Science or art. This road or that. We're told that life demands outcomes—that effort without success is still failure. But what if, just once, you could walk away without winning, without losing, yet with everything intact?advertisementIn sport, unlike life, that rare grace exists. It's called the draw.When R. Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari stood broken but unbowed in Sydney in 2021, with time being their only shield, the game stopped demanding a winner. When Michael Atherton batted ten hours beneath the Johannesburg sun, he didn't chase glory; he earned survival. These weren't stalemates. They were testaments.
England vs India, Manchester Test: ReportOnly those denied the draw know it's worth.'Tennis is a tough sport,' said Roger Federer after five punishing sets in the Australian Open 2017 final against Nadal. 'There are no draws—but if there was going to be one, I'd have been happy to share it.' He wasn't being sentimental. He was honouring the truth: that some contests deserve two victors, or none at all. Like the 2025 French Open final, where Alcaraz edged Sinner in nearly six hours of war. Yes, one lifted the trophy. But neither walked off defeated.There is a certain romance to a draw in this game. A quiet, aching beauty, not of triumph, but of resistance. Other sports glimpse it, too. Football has its moments: when a team, down to ten men, holds its ground against overwhelming odds. The scoreboard stays level, but the story is anything but equal. The draw becomes an act of survival.But in Test cricket, the draw stretches even further. It's carved out over five days, shaped by time, weather, and the sheer will to endure. Sometimes it's not the team, but one lone batter or two shattered souls who hold the line. It is not a moment, it is a long, stubborn defiance. In the fading light of the fifth day, it becomes the ultimate sporting paradox: a non-result that says everything.WRITTEN OFF, INDIA FIGHT BACK And there's more romance to the draw when you're ruled out, when the odds are stacked against you. Not many believed that this young Indian Test side, led by Shubman Gill, would compete in England, especially after the Test retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma before the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Yet, Gill and his boys carried them to Manchester, the fourth Test of the five-match series, with a chance still to fight for the trophy. After the heartbreak of Lord's where India fell short of a 193-run target by 22, not many gave the visitors a chance to grind it out when they were 1 for 2 at Lunch on Day 4 after England took a 311-run lead following a mammoth 669 on the board. advertisementCaptain Gill walked into the middle, facing a hat-trick ball. Many would have started making plans for Sunday. Even the broadcasters, including the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, didn't expect play to extend into the fifth day when India lost Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan for 0 in the first over of their second innings. 311 looked like a mountain to climb. But, India fought hard. They went from 0 to 2 for 178 for 2 at the end of the day's play, riding on Gill and KL Rahul's defiance. The two batters left everything out in the middle. Natural strokemakers, Gill and Rahul ensured they curbed their instincts to ensure India lived to fight another day. BATTLE AGAINST THE ODDS, CONDITIONSAnd on Day 5, they fought even harder.The pitch hadn't broken up in dramatic fashion, but the weather had turned. When England piled up 669, conditions were almost ideal—sun overhead, the surface true, a batting daydream. But Sunday morning at Old Trafford was different. Overcast skies hovered, the air was heavy, and the pitch, now worn, started playing tricks. The ball began to talk—nipping, jagging, occasionally leaping from cracks. Every delivery had questions. No certainties.advertisementKL Rahul, well set in the 90s, was the first to fall. Ben Stokes—bowling through pain, as he often does—found one that tailed back in sharply, trapping him plumb in front. He was relentless all morning, bending his back, extracting everything from the pitch. Another ball from him reared awkwardly, smashed into Gill's thumb, then into his helmet.But Gill endured. He brought up what may go down as the most hard-earned hundred of his career. He had three already in this series, but none carried the weight, the bruises, or the narrative of this one. His captaincy had been questioned when England piled on the runs. But when he walked out to face that hat-trick ball on Day 4, he left the captaincy behind. He was only a batter—present, focused, unflinching. One ball at a time. One session at a time. A century built not on flair, but on bloody-minded resistance.advertisementJust before lunch, he finally fell—tempted by a wide one from Archer. He'd played the cut well all innings, but this one kicked up a bit more and swung late. A thick edge flew to keeper Jamie Smith. Gone for 103. India were still well behind.At 222 for 4, with two sessions left, the match was tilting England's way.SUNDAR AND JADEJA HOLD FORT But Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar changed that.Sundar, promoted to No. 5, joined Jadeja in what became a defiant, unflinching stand. They batted together for 45.2 overs, adding 203 runs, and as every over ticked by, England's hopes quietly evaporated. Sundar brought up his maiden Test hundred. Jadeja his seventh, unbeaten on 107. As the light faded at Old Trafford, England hung on, hoping for a mistake. But none came. India weren't just surviving, they were deciding the terms.From 0 for 2 to 425 for 4. The scoreline still reads 1–2, but the draw in Manchester felt like something more. A psychological shift. A reclamation of belief.England's frustration was in fully display towards the end of the Test. They knew they should have won this and headed to the Oval with a 3-1 lead, series sealed. But, they will have to reset and fight again in three days time. advertisementBen Stokes offered the draw early in the final hour. India declined. Jadeja was on 89, Sundar on 80. Technically, teams can agree to draw once the final hour begins—but India wanted more. In those extra five overs, they made England wait. Watch. Suffer. And in those five overs, both batters completed their hundreds.Stokes and others had a few words—remarks about 'playing for milestones.' But India weren't listening. They were too busy rewriting the script. In the end, it looked like a moral victory—something England themselves have claimed often enough during their Ashes campaigns.'It'll give us a mental edge,' Gautam Gambhir said. 'You bat five sessions under pressure, that's great character. We'll take confidence into The Oval, but nothing's guaranteed.'A few months ago, India lost seven wickets in the final session of a Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, losing a Test they should have drawn—even with Kohli and Rohit in the XI.This time, without them, the young Indian stood tall. Once again, Gill and his boys proved that the future of Indian Test batting is in safe hands. And when the two sides meet again in London this Thursday, one team will carry the momentum of Manchester.It won't be England.- EndsTune InMust Watch