IND vs ENG

England vs India: Shubman Gill-led Team India have taken on Ben Stokes’ England in the first Test match of the five-game series at Headingley in Leeds, from Friday, June 20th.

The ongoing series marks the beginning of Team India’s voyage in the 2025-2027 cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC).

The five-match series against England also holds a lot of importance for Team India, as they are currently going through a transition phase after the Test retirement of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravichandran Ashwin.

Before the start of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named Shubman Gill as the new Test skipper of the Indian Cricket Team.

Team India had a solid start to the match, after Yashasvi Jaiswal (101), Shubman Gill (147), and Rishabh Pant (134) slammed centuries in the first inning. After dominating the English bowlers, India scored 471 in the first inning of the match.

In reply, England gave a solid fightback as the Indian bowling attack struggled to get breakthroughs in the game. Ollie Pope (106), and Harry Brook (99) played a crucial role for the Three Lions. It was once again Jasprit Bumrah who led the visitors’ bowling attack with his five-wicket haul. India restricted England to 465, and kept a six-run lead.

India had a nervy start to their second inning, losing two wickets. The weather deteriorated in the last moment on Day 03, and rain forced an early stumps. India stood at 90/2 with KL Rahul and Shubman Gill on the crease at Stumps.

After the stumps, former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik spoke to Sky Cricket and showered praise on Indian speedster Jasprit Bumrah for his stupendous performance on Day 3. The former wicketkeeper-batter compared Jasprit Bumrah to the Kohinoor diamond.

Karthik added that Bumrah is very special and always performs well in all three formats.

“He is as valuable as the Kohinoor diamond. I hope people realise how important he is to the team across formats. He will make it work regardless of formats, bowling phase, and any kind of ball… In the history of the game, for any bowler who has picked more than 200 wickets, he has the best average, and that tells you he is something very special,” Dinesh Karthik said to Sky Cricket.

Jasprit Bumrah made his Test debut in 2018 against South Africa. Following that, the 31-year-old played 46 Tests and 87 innings, picking up 210 wickets at an economy rate of 2.78 and a bowling average of 19.33.