7 min readBirminghamJul 9, 2025 07:04 PM IST
First published on: Jul 6, 2025 at 12:33 AM IST
India has put England in a philosophical dilemma. From their captain, coaches, experts and fans, they all vouch that this team doesn’t do draws. England either win or they go down fighting. On the final day, the home team needed to score 536 runs and have 7 wickets in hand. After the play, England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick conceded that they “they needed to score hell of a lot runs” but they will “remain positive”, before finally conceding that they might have to think about the third result of draw. But not their ill-equipped batsmen, rain could be England’s big hope.
It was yet another day of majestic batting and incisive new-ball bowling that helped India virtually rule out a possible 2-0 series result by the end of tomorrow. Shubman Gill, with his 161 today and match aggregate of 430, was the main man who demoralized England but crucial blows were also struck by pacers, Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, along with Rishabh Pant (65 in 58 balls). Here’s a tribute to the day’s less-sung stars.
Tired and drained after fielding for most of the day, England openers, in conventional cricket, would see to play the overs and start afresh tomorrow. But this is a team that doesn’t draw so the two stuck to their natural game and this worked for the Indian bowlers, who had stuck to the Test line and length.
In Akash Deep and Siraj, the Indian team has a new-ball pair that is lethal for any left-right opening partnership. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, for the second time in the match, would find this out. Siraj would get the right-hander Crawley with an in-coming ball that the opener edged to backward point. Akash Deep would go round-the-wicket to explore the left-hander Duckett’s tentativeness on the off-stump. A sharp nip-backer would beat his defense to strike the stumps. Akash Deep would strike again, this time accounting for a more skilled batsman. Joe Root would be bowled by a peach: delivered from wide of crease, the full delivery created the illusion that it was tailing in with the angle and made Root try wristing it to leg side, but it straightened to knock back the off stump. And Akash Deep would tap his chest and point his index finger towards the turf as if he were suggesting that he belonged at this level. This was the kind of spell the England bowlers were threatening to bowl in the morning. After taking the wickets of KL Rahul and Karun Nair, they threatened to get India out cheaply.
But then Rishabh Pant entered and stitched a crucial partnership with the omnipresent batsmen Shubman. There is this guessing game that gets played around the ground when Rishabh Pant takes the field here in England. When will Pant dance down the track and thump the ball over the bowler’s head?
Among the BBC Test Match Special pundits, the majority view was it would be the second ball. That is what he had done in both the innings of the first Test. The Indian voice in the box, Cheteshwar Pujara, said it would be the first ball today. Having batted with him, Pujara knows his team mate always goes against the grain.
Pant’s knock of 65 from 58-balls was usual and so was the start. This was wilder and extra entertaining but still it was typically Pant, the ultimate counter intuitive cricketer.
Pujara was right, Pant jumped down the track on the first ball he faced and ended up missing Josh Tongue’s full toss. As if to prove the second-ball attack theory wrong, he hit a classic standing sweep for a four on the 3rd ball and his trademark ambling towards the bowler six on the 4th ball. On the 2nd ball he played a defensive plod to point. If reading Pant’s mind was so easy to read, he wouldn’t be the phenomenon that he is.
At best this could be described as a hit-and-miss where he gave two catches – one incredibly easy and the other impossible tough. He had the usual tumbling sweeps, fine paddles and a graceful six off Tongue to the cow’s corner.
But this Pant inning will be remembered for his flying bat and not soaring ball. Twice in his innings, Pant’s bat would slip from his hand while he tried to whack the ball. The distance the bat would travel gave an idea about his bat speed. Trying to launch a Tongue ball outside the ground, Pant put every ounce of energy from the bulky upper body in the swing. That would make the grip loosen and the willow would fly to a deep backward square leg.
He would get out in a similar way, his whole-hearted whack after jumping out of the crease to a Bashir ball resulting in the bat going to mid-wicket and the ball reaching the hands of Ben Duckett at long-off. It was the most amusing moment of the afternoon. Pant had tough competition since this was the fancy dress day at Edgbaston, where a fan dressed as a piglet was chased by chefs with knives in the aisles of the stands.
In his every knock Pant comes up with one shot that would baffle the opposition. This time along with those many sweeps and lofted golfing hoicks, he also showcased an unique shot square on the off-side to a full ball. Pant carved the ball to the backward point boundary. He usually cuts the short ball on the off-side, now he showed what he can do to the wide yorkers – the kind of ball bowlers use in white ball cricket. Pant once again showed that no one can second-guess him.
Meanwhile, England’s approach tomorrow can be second-guessed. After their staple “we will play” bravado in the past, Marcus Trescothick l, England’s batting coach, would say “I’m not stupid enough to understand that you have to just win or lose. There are three results possible in every game.” Shubman’s India has made the cocky English Bazballers utter the unimaginable, the dirty four-letter word that is ‘draw’.
India's captain Shubman Gill celebrates after scoring a century during day four of the second cricket test match between England and India at Edgbaston in Birmingham, England, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell) 
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