India Vs England Test Series Review: 25 Days Of Intensity And Drama

25 days of gripping Test cricket at its best and the Rothesay India–England series ended level, as India snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at the Oval, which has always been a happy hunting ground for them for over 50 years now.

After 25 days of sustained excitement of such quality that, quite unbelievably, with just 35 runs to play with on the last day of the series, a full stadium turned out to watch the final nail-biting finish. And this in a format that we have often been told is dying out, or even worse, already dead.

What could have been a more emphatic, more resounding statement of its durability than this, 148 years after the first Test match was played at Melbourne in 1877?

Thousands of runs were scored in what must surely be one of the highest-scoring series in England in a long, long time. Played in almost un-English conditions where the ball did not swing or seam for the most part, over a succession of hot, sunny days, on flat tracks where the bowlers toiled and the batters made merry.

India Vs England Test Series 2025: Drama, Emotions, Intensity

There was plenty of drama right from the first day onwards and all talk of 4-day Test matches, of 2-Test match series, or even a one-off sandwiched between T20s and ODIs, was emphatically laid to rest as the TV presenters asked the question that seemed to be hanging on everyone's lips, “What will you do from tomorrow, now that this amazing series is over?”

A question hitherto reserved, possibly, only for the times when a season of IPL evening entertainment on television came to an end for Indian families.

But this was so much more real, so much more authentic, so much more the real thing, so much more heart-warming, as people walked out to bat for their country with arm in sling, or foot in plaster, or nursing a broken finger.

You wouldn’t see this spirit, this kind of heart, anywhere else outside a Test match. It reminds me of what was once said about England batting great Ken Barrington, about almost seeing a fluttering Union Jack behind him every time he walked out to bat for England.

Something that will never come through to the same extent in a T20 or even in an ODI.

Not since the great 1960–61 Test series between the Australian and West Indies sides led by the legendary Richie Benaud and Frank Worrell respectively, which featured the first ever tied Test, has a series witnessed such dramatic ebbs and flows, twists and turns, such mammoth fightbacks and moments of greatness that would enrich the game forever.

That was a very different era, obviously, and the game was played very differently, but in terms of what it took to play it at the highest level, in matters of overall technique and mental strength and determination, nothing much has changed over the six intervening decades, for generations of cricketers who have graced cricket grounds since then.

Did we just witness the blossoming and elevation of young Shubman Gill to a captaincy era of comparable greatness? Time will tell, but the way his young team has fought in this series certainly leaves some very favourable portents in that direction.

And as he said at the press conference afterwards, if someone had made Test matches just 4 days long, all the matches in this riveting series would have been drawn, matches where even going into the last session of play on the fifth day, no one was sure which side would win.

And did we also just witness the passing of the baton from India’s best fast bowler to a younger practitioner of the art, when Siraj hit the base of Gus Atkinson‘s off stump with a perfect yorker that brought back memories of Bumrah scattering Ollie Pope’s stumps during the last home series in India?

Making an 80-over-old ball talk, moving it away beautifully in the air and bringing it back in off the ground, he was simply outstanding. And fittingly, in the absence of Bumrah, it was he who produced that brilliant yorker with just 6 runs left.

Here is a young man who wears his heart on his sleeve, racking up a mammoth 187 overs in the series. And as he so refreshingly said at the press conference, playing for the country, you don’t think of how many overs you’ve bowled, you just give it everything you’ve got. He is someone who’s always prepared to bowl his heart out and give 110 per cent every time.

A young man who likes to keep things simple and hit the right lengths in the right areas, as he said.

And he certainly did that spectacularly well today.

Ironically, India won the two Test matches which Bumrah did not play. Unthinkable even a few months ago.

It truly seems like the dawn of a new era. For a young captain and his inexperienced side, still getting used to the absence of the big stars of the last decade or more, to come up trumps by the narrowest of victory margins at the Oval in the last 100 years, was a resounding statement for the times to come.

Twelve hundreds, five Indian batters going past 400 runs, three of them past 500, and one past 750, this was more than a brilliant performance, with everyone down the order contributing. It was a complete team effort.
And the young captain had more than come of age.

This was a series that India dominated large chunks of. They won more sessions, they scored more overall runs, they scored more centuries, their bowlers took more wickets individually, took more fifers, and yet, in the end, we were that close to losing it 1–3, when we should probably have won it 3–1.

Probably the inexperience showed, probably they let the opposition off the hook at crucial moments, probably they crumbled when they should have held firm for a little longer. Although to be fair, the same thing happened to the England side as well. And this was a drawn series that felt like a win in every aspect.

The ‘Gun team’, as they call themselves, has given us much to look forward to.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author. The author is a veteran Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force, who has played Ranji Trophy for Services.