In many ways, Sunday’s defeat marks the most momentous slip-up for England captain Ben Stokes and ‘Bazball’ in an exhilarating cycle that began three years ago. England gunned down 378 against India in Birmingham in 2022, their highest-ever Test chase during the heady early phase of their all-out-aggressive style.
But the ignominious 336-run surrender to Shubman Gill’s men on Day 5 at the same venue, their biggest defeat (by runs) at ‘fortress’ Edgbaston, showed the other side of the Bazball coin.
For India, it was a welcome return to winning ways after losing seven of their last nine Tests and failing to defend a target of 371 in the fourth innings in the first Test at Headingley. The victory ended their poorest run in the longest format since winning only 1 of 15 Tests between December 2013 and August 2015.
Led by Gill’s colossal 430-run accumulation, India broke the Edgbaston jinx in their ninth attempt at the ground, 58 years after their first Test here in 1967, becoming the first Asian team to win at the ground.
What made the Birmingham victory even more significant was that it was achieved on a flatbed without pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, a selection call roundly questioned at the start of the game. Neither did attacking wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav find a spot in the playing XI.
India’s seamers, led admirably by Bumrah’s replacement Akash Deep, outshone England’s pace attack by double the count of wickets (18 to 9), with Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj accounting for all but one of those scalps.
Akash Deep managed to achieve what even Bumrah hasn’t been able to do yet in his Test career with a maiden 10-wicket match haul.
Story continues below this ad
As England lost for only the third time in 11 Tests after winning the toss and opting to chase under Stokes’ captaincy, the India’s 1014-run accumulation across two innings exposed a glaring weakness in the home side’s thrill-a-minute approach to red-ball cricket – the absence of an incisive pace cartel.
The result has prompted some eye-catching numbers:
1 – India registered their first-ever Test victory at Edgbaston after a winless streak of eight matches (7 losses, 1 draw) since 1967.
2 – India became only the second team in Test history to aggregate 1,000 runs and pick up all 20 wickets in a Test after Australia (v England at The Oval, 1938 and v West Indies at Sydney, 1969).
25 – Shubman Gill (25 years 301 days) became the youngest Indian Test captain to record an away Test victory, bettering Sunil Gavaskar (26 years 202 days v New Zealand at Auckland in 1976).
Story continues below this ad
60 – Edgbaston is the 60th different venue where India has recorded a Test win, the most among all teams.
10 – Akash Deep recorded the best-ever Test-match figures (10/187) by an Indian bowler in England, surpassing Chetan Sharma’s 10/188 at Edgbaston in 1986.
6 – Akash Deep is only the sixth Indian pacer to record a 10-wicket match haul in an away Test and the first since Ishant Sharma (10/108 v West Indies, Bridgetown) in 2011 to achieve the feat.
336 – India recorded its biggest away Test win (by runs), surpassing the 318-run win against West Indies in North Sound, 2016.
