Was this the best Test series since the Ashes in 2005? Breaking down England 2 India 2

New York Times

a day ago

One of the greatest modern Test series ended in the most extraordinary fashion at the Oval on Monday when Mohammed Siraj bowled Gus Atkinson to give India victory by just six runs and a 2-2 series draw with England.
The final day dawned with England needing 35 more runs to reach 374 and complete the second-highest run chase in their history with four wickets in hand but effectively one man down with Chris Woakes nursing a dislocated shoulder.
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What followed was 57 minutes of play, in front of a full house, that encapsulated everything that has been good and compelling about this series; a microcosm of 25 days of complete sporting drama.
India were very much on top when Siraj dismissed a nervous-looking Jamie Smith and then won the narrowest of lbw decisions against Jamie Overton from umpire Kumar Dharmasena.
When Prasidh Krishna bowled Josh Tongue, 17 were still needed and India were on the brink. But Atkinson smashed Siraj for six in company with Woakes, who had emerged from the Oval dressing room with his arm in a sling and clearly in pain.
It needed one last effort from Siraj to conjure a yorker that dismissed Atkinson, with a win for both sides and only the third tie in Test history still possible, sending the large contingent of India fans at the Oval wild.
Here, Paul Newman looks back at the highlights and memorable moments of an epic Test series.
England's fabled Ashes victory of 20 years ago is generally considered one of their best Test series of all time, along with the 1981 classic Ian Botham and Bob Willis Ashes. But the 2-2 draw against India that finished in extraordinary drama at the Oval on Monday is the best for 20 years.
It has had everything only a five-Test series played over the full 25 days can contain and ended with a seriously injured player with his arm in a sling desperately trying to see his side over the line. The 2-2 Ashes draw of 2019 is up there and featured the Ben Stokes miracle of Headingley. So, too, is the 2023 Ashes when England came from two down to draw 2-2.
But this epic pips those two.
That was an incredibly courageous effort from Woakes, who dislocated his left shoulder on the first day and was clearly grimacing with pain whenever he was required to run in a last-wicket stand with Atkinson that took England to within six runs of the second-highest successful run-chase in their Test history.
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He became only the fourth player in Test cricket to bat one-handed following Lionel Tennyson, Colin Cowdrey, Paul Terry and Malcolm Marshall and was planning to bat in a left-handed stance if he had needed to face a ball. What bravery and how poignant that this could be the last we see of Woakes at Test level.
The 36-year-old looks certain to miss the Ashes that starts in November through injury and may not have been picked anyway because age has started to catch up with him in this series. If this is the end for a popular and wholehearted character then Woakes gave us an indelible final image.
It has been a series of players carrying on with serious injury, with Rishabh Pant batting with a broken foot at Old Trafford and Shoaib Bashir bowling England to victory at Lord's with a broken finger.
But all that has done is reignite the debate over why cricket will not allow full substitutes, with former England captain Michael Vaughan being the strongest advocate in favour of replacements for serious injuries.
One important voice against them remains England captain Stokes, even though the absence of Woakes played a big part in England's Oval defeat. 'I just don't see it being a thing,' said Stokes. 'I'm sorry to say this but if someone gets injured, tough s***. I'm still heavily against it but it's just sod's law that this happened the week after I said I was against subs.'
Everyone expected Jasprit Bumrah to be India's main bowling weapon in this series but, incredibly, the best bowler in the world was absent for both of his side's victories and played in the two England wins and the draw in Manchester.
Instead, it was Mohammed Siraj who became the most important bowling figure and the face of the series.
Siraj was simply indefatigable in playing in all five Tests and bowling more than 180 overs, taking 23 wickets along the way. He was still running in on the final morning, hitting 90mph just before he bowled Atkinson with a perfect yorker and brought out one last Cristiano Ronaldo celebration.
At Lord's, Siraj was inconsolable when Bashir bowled him to give England a narrow victory. Now, across the capital at the Oval, he was at the centre of wild Indian celebrations.
Test series are usually well-behaved affairs these days, with match referees ready to pounce on any sign of indiscipline and players from around the world being much more familiar and friendly with each other because of the franchise circuit. Not this one.
There has been a large dollop of spice ever since Zak Crawley was told to 'grow a pair of f****** balls' by India captain Shubman Gill when he and Ben Duckett somehow contrived to stop India bowling more than one over in the seven remaining minutes of the third day at Lord's.
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Things reached a head when England wanted to end the fourth Test as it became clear the match was destined for a draw, but India batted on for Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to complete centuries. That man Siraj had to be involved, too, losing 15 per cent of his match fee for screaming into the face of Ben Duckett at Lord's in the only incident to attract attention from the powers that be.
Perhaps the most provocative moment of all came when Akash Deep put his arm round Duckett after he had dismissed him at the Oval. You just don't do that and Deep was lucky Duckett did not react in a more aggressive way.
Bat very much dominated ball throughout, at least until the more bowler-friendly surface of the Oval, and this became the first five-Test series in which more than 7,000 runs were scored.
Gill was in his first series as India captain and led the way with the bat, making an incredible 754 runs, the most by any India captain in any series.
But Gill proved himself still very much a work in progress tactically and often leaned towards the defensive. Not least when he left every fielder on the boundary during England's last-wicket stand on Monday with only one ball of an over remaining, allowing Atkinson to shield Woakes from the strike.
Still, Gill will return home a hero and a worthy successor to the big two previous captains in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Talking of injuries, another indelible image of the series came at Old Trafford when Stokes continued to bowl in the face of India's defiance in holding out for a draw even though he had clearly seriously injured his own shoulder. He was subsequently ruled out of the final Test with a grade-three tear and was hugely missed at the Oval.
Stokes was in the form of his life with the ball before his injury, bowling more overs — 140 — and taking more wickets — 17 — than ever before in a series. He made his first Test century for two years in Manchester, too, and is more important, at 34, than he has ever been for England.
The man is simply irreplaceable and it is no exaggeration to say England's hopes of upsetting Australia and winning the Ashes this winter are almost totally dependent on their captain regaining full fitness before the first Test in Perth on November 21.
It has to be the return of Jofra Archer after an absence of more than four years from first-class cricket to play in the third and fourth Tests. How he marked the moment, too, by taking the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal with his third ball at Lord's and remained a potent 90mph-plus force throughout the third Test.
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Archer's speeds were a little down on the flattest pitch of them all at Old Trafford but he did enough to prove he remains an important Test weapon for England, particularly in Australia this winter.
What credit Archer deserves for never giving up on playing Test cricket again throughout serious injury problems. He could easily have just taken the T20 franchise circuit dollar and earned himself more money for bowling fewer overs, but he has never stopped wanting to play Test cricket and the ultimate form of the game is all the better for his presence.
There were 19 centuries in the series and the best of them belonged to Harry Brook in the second innings at the Oval when he showed touches of genius in making his 10th hundred in just his 30th Test.
This was a performance reminiscent of Kevin Pietersen when he made a century on this same Oval ground to save a Test and win the Ashes for England 20 years ago but, like KP, there will always be debate over the ways Brook gets himself out. Take this game. Brook was totally on top of the Indian attack and England were romping towards their target of 374 when he danced down the wicket to Akash Deep, saw his bat fly out of his hand and the ball loop gently to Siraj at extra cover.
Reckless? Irresponsible? Well, if Brook had not played in this audacious way in the first place, he would never have made 111 off 98 balls and left India seemingly down and out. We simply have to take the occasional rough with the smooth with Brook and England's Bazballers in general because the good very much outweighs the bad.
It was in around 2010 that Graham Thorpe sat down with a group of journalists during a press briefing at Loughborough and told us England had a special batting talent in the making. His name was Joe Root, Thorpe told us, and he would go on to big things.
How right he was and how special it was when Root took out one of the headbands that were made for this match to commemorate the late great Thorpe as he completed his 39th Test hundred. Thorpe was not only a great England batter but a hugely influential figure on Root, Stokes and many of this England team in his role as a coach. He was sorely missed on his home ground this week.
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There is no question India deserved a share of the series. They were the better side throughout the bulk of the five matches and a 3-1 England victory would have flattered them, however heartbreaking it was for the hosts to fall six runs short at the end. It may be a cliche but cricket was the winner of a breathtaking series with the most fitting finale.
That hour on the last day in front of another full house was as good as sport gets; certainly the best and most tense 60 minutes of any sport I have ever witnessed. And I'm pretty old.
Test cricket is under threat like never before from the franchises, but this was why it remains the ultimate cricket format and the greatest of all games. 'It's been a pretty special series to be a part of,' said Stokes. 'It's been full of ups and downs and ebbs and flows. We want to constantly be promoting the game. This series has been great for that.'
And so say all of us.
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