Shubman Gill sets records as India end Edgbaston hoodoo

Never had an Indian team won a Test match at Edgbaston, in eight visits to Birmingham dating back to 1967. Seven losses and a draw was the record facing Shubman Gill’s team when they arrived at Edgbaston down 0-1 in the series after losing the unlosable Test in Leeds, but they bucked history and the odds to beat England by a record margin of 336 runs – their biggest away from home – to head to Lord’s with the scores level. 

Front and center of this famous win was the new captain, Gill, who with 430 runs in this match came within striking distance of Graham Gooch’s record of the most by a single player in a Test. After scoring 147 at Headingley, Gill underlined emphatically that the captaincy burden has not impacted his batting, rather it has allowed it to flourish to a new level. His 269 out of India’s first innings total of 587 stands as the highest score by an Indian Test captain, and the best by an Indian in England, and with an aggressive 161 in the second dig, Gill went where no other batsman in Test history bar Gooch has gone.

In four innings, Gill has stacked up 585 runs. There are three Test matches to go. Can you imagine what records could fall? 

Playing solid backup roles in the shadow of the captain were Yashasvi Jaiswal with 87 in India’s first innings, Ravindra Jadeja with 89 and 69 not out, Washington Sundar with a handy 42 to help Gill build the total in the first innings, and KL Rahul (55) and Rishabh Pant (65) in India’s second innings. 

But alongside Gill, the two men who really stood out were Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep. India’s decision to rest Jasprit Bumrah and not play Kuldeep Yadav meant that the onus on taking 20 wickets fell on Siraj, Akash and Prasidh Krishna. While Prasidh got better as the Test went on, he only managed one wicket and is surely to miss out at Lord’s, the new-ball pair of Siraj and Akash combined to take 17 of the 20 wickets that did fall. 

Siraj stood up in Bumrah’s absence to claim 6/70 when England batted first, which ended a run of four-wicket hauls home and away. Akash was sensational across both innings with 10 wickets in the match, of which seven were of England’s top five. Crucially, Akash struck at the right moments in this match, most noticeably when he dismissed Harry Brook for 158 with the new ball in England’s second innings and then Joe Root late on day four. His 6/99 in the fourth innings was his first haul of five or more and a fitting reminder to the management that he should have played more than nine Tests. 

Seldom has a pair of Indian bowlers so dominated a Test match away from home. Siraj and Akash shared all 10 wickets to fall in England’s first innings, which spanned six ducks and centuries to Brook and Jamie Smith in a partnership of 303 out of a total of 407. In that innings, Siraj took six to Akash’s four. In the next, Akash took six and Siraj one as England wilted in pursuit of a record chase of 608. 

The pair had England in trouble at 84/5 and later wrapped up the innings quickly under a bit of cloud cover once the second new ball was taken. To keep your wits about you on an unforgiving surface when Bazball is going hard is a daunting task, so full marks to Siraj and Akash. 

The same cannot be said of the support act. Prasidh had a spell of 0-50 in five overs when his attempts to bounce Smith and Brook proved futile, and though he came back well later with a tidy morning spell of 6-2-14-0 on the final day, the fact that he took only one wicket across 27 overs points to the weak link. If you can’t pitch the ball up consistently in England, you’re not going to succeed very often.

Jadeja struggled once again for impact with his left-arm spin on an unresponsive Birmingham surface, taking one wicket from 32 overs bowled. Washington bowled 20 overs for returns of 1/101 and Nitish Reddy’s gentle medium pace had no impact, even though he can point to a tough chance grassed by Pant. 

Gill praised this bowling attack for taking 20 wickets in the absence of Bumrah and added that whatever combination India pick in this series, it can take 20 wickets. Gill is wrong, of course, for India took 15 wickets at Headingley with Bumrah around. The series level, India will welcome back Bumrah at Lord’s but must add another aggressive wicket-taker. They’ve jolted Bazball, and now have to go for the jugular.