Win the toss, bowl first and trust the surface to hold firm for the chase. The tactic has served Ben Stokes pretty well these past three years, but here it blew up in his face. Instead, Shubman Gill was the captain being showered with praise at the end, his first victory in the job levelling this series at one-all courtesy of a 336-run thumping.
That toss? Hindsight tells us it was clearly a poor choice, even if Gill would have done the same. But India’s first win at Edgbaston at the 19th attempt was ultimately decided by the visitors outperforming their hosts in pretty much every department across the five days. And as England subsided to 271 all out in 68.1 overs, after being set an unlikely 608 to win the day before, the chief disparity was very much highlighted.
Gill’s remarkable eruption of 430 runs – scores of 269 and 161 – was bona fide hall of fame stuff from the 25-year-old; confirmation that the sacred No 4 spot previously occupied by Virat Kohli is in good hands. But without the bowling to claim 20 wickets, it would have been a personal feat alone. And on that score, despite the unyielding pitch that served as the canvas for his own magnificence, Gill had the tools at his disposal.
Rewind to the start and eyebrows were understandably raised over India’s decision to rest Jasprit Bumrah at 1-0 down. And yet in the absence of the world’s No 1 bowler others stepped up. Mohammed Siraj claimed six for 70 in England’s sub-par first innings, while Akash Deep, Bumrah’s direct replacement, took six for 99 in their second to finish with 10 in the match. England’s four quicks mustered just nine between them.
It has left Stokes and Brendon McCullum, the head coach, with much to chew on before the third Test at Lord’s but, with it starting on Thursday, precious little time. Gus Atkinson has been added to the squad a month after his hamstring popped, while Jofra Archer is straining to make his comeback after a four-year absence. Neither comes with a cast-iron guarantee of match readiness, however, and picking both would represent a significant gamble.
How the script has been flipped from Headingley, where England’s bowl-first approach came good but still needed a historic chase to do so. Here, staring at the impossible on the final day, they did not go down in a blaze of wild swipes but instead were picked off by a masterful display of fast bowling from Deep. He will not be the one to make way for Bumrah next week and, in that respect, the challenge for England only gets harder.
In contrast to Gill’s insatiable appetite was a home side that registered seven ducks across the two innings and saw only Jamie Smith and Harry Brook travel north of 50. Smith did so twice, in fact, with his remarkable 184 not out on day three – a genuine marmalade-dropper of an innings – followed by a controlled yet muscular 88 on the final day in which he cleared the rope four times.
Not that Smith had Gill sweating much. With the tail for company, he was simply raging against the dying of the light when he began propelling the ball into the stands. In the end he was mugged by a slower ball from Deep – a fitting scalp to complete the fast bowler’s first five-wicket haul in Tests.
If there were any nerves for Gill they probably came first thing, when he opened his curtains and saw rain sweeping across Birmingham. Had he waited too long to declare the evening before? With the ball already 16 overs old and soon to go soft, the loss of an entire session would deny his seamers the use of a second later in the day.
But after some rapid work by the ground staff – a mop-up operation later surpassed by the tourists – play got going at 12.40pm with 80 overs slated. By the end of the first session, with England having resumed on 72 for three before crumbling to 153 for six, Gill could begin preparing his first ever victory speech.
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Once again it was Deep who set the tone. Seam movement was always going to be fleeting and yet he charged in with purpose to banjax Ollie Pope and Harry Brook with deliveries that nipped in. Pope chopped on for 24 via a crooked defence – his Test and that of Zak Crawley was one of flakiness returning – while Brook’s lbw for 23 was set up by a succession of outswingers followed by the sucker ball.
The game was pretty much up when Stokes was lbw for 33 following his latest struggle against Ravindra Jadeja targeting the footmarks. However, it was the off-spin of Washington Sundar that completed a pretty sorry Test match for the England captain on the stroke of lunch when he propped forward to a delivery that drifted in.
Thereafter it was a case of India picking off the lower order and delighting a crowd that had turned Edgbaston a shade of blue on the final day. India’s supporters had also delivered some amusing chants of “Boring, boring England” as the hosts swallowed their pride and attempted to see out the day. Not that it is ever boring with this lot.
