India v England in 2023/24: When India were pushed harder by a visiting team than for some time

India v England in 2023/24: Nick Hoult

Test matches (5): India 4 (48pts), England 1 (12pts)

On the scheduled fifth day of the final Test, England had a mountain to climb – nothing unusual for touring teams in India. But instead of digging in, with fielders around the bat, most of the squad were hiking to Triund, a hill station at 2,850 metres, with sweeping views of the Dhauladhar mountain range in the Himalayas. Among them were captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum. The surroundings allowed time for reflection on their first series defeat since joining forces in the spring of 2022, a 4-1 result confirmed by a tired performance at Dharamsala.

“When you’re exposed the way we have been in the back end of this series, it does require some pretty deep thinking,” said McCullum, in his first public criticism of the team. He admitted “refinements” were needed to England’s personnel and approach; what had disappointed him most was his team’s “timidity” when India were on top, a reference to his batters’ loss of clarity, which had previously been their strength. McCullum also accepted they needed to tone down some of their public pronouncements, which smacked at times of arrogance. When, for instance, Ben Duckett was asked how many runs England could chase in the third Test at Rajkot, he replied: “The more the better.” Their subsequent defeat, by 434 runs, was the second-heaviest in their history. “It is fine to inwardly believe what you can achieve, but just be a bit smarter around how we say things sometimes,” said McCullum. “It is not arrogance – just confidence in the group.”

The fifth Test marked the halfway point of his four-year contract: Dharamsala was his 23rd game in charge, with another 23 scheduled before his deal expires after the 2025/26 Ashes. England had won 14 and lost eight, but six of the defeats were by Australia and India, and each seemed to lead to a referendum on the Bazball project – an inevitable consequence, perhaps, of challenging some of Test cricket’s longest-held conventions.

Whereas England’s failure to win the Ashes had been tinged with cruel luck, thanks to the Manchester rain, they could not argue with defeat here. India were deserving winners, recovering from the shock of the first Test at Hyderabad, where they blew a first-innings lead of 190, and making good the absence of experienced players. Including one-off games, they had now won 17 home series in a row. Indeed, Hyderabad was only their fourth defeat in 51 home Tests since 2012/13, when Alastair Cook’s England pulled off a 2-1 win. McCullum’s regret stemmed from the fact that his team had chances in the next three matches; especially costly were third-day collapses at Rajkot and Ranchi.

In the main, England tried to stick to their Bazball principles: they had been bold with the selection of uncapped spinners Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, who both enjoyed good series; the team’s run-rate of 3.84 was the highest by a visiting side to India in a multi-match series; and they inflicted on R Ashwin comfortably his most expensive series economy-rate (4.12).

But India were not to be outdone. Of the series’s record 102 sixes, they hit 72, with 26 alone – another record – from Yashasvi Jaiswal, a precocious 22-year-old who blended Test elegance with IPL brutality. Their captain, Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, scored two hundreds, completely outplaying Stokes. If Jaiswal looked the outstanding batsman of India’s next generation, there was plenty of other talent on show. Wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel played a decisive hand in his second Test, scoring 90 in Ranchi and keeping immaculately. Sarfaraz Khan had a confident strut, having averaged nearly 70 in first-class cricket, and took to the Test arena smoothly, with three fifties in five innings. And seamer Akash Deep marked his debut with a burst of three wickets in 11 balls on the first morning of the fourth Test. India used 18 players – normally a sign of selectorial confusion, but simply proof of their depth.

This was just as well. On the eve of the series, Virat Kohli had pulled out of the first two Tests citing personal reasons, and did not return; it emerged that his wife, Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma, was heavily pregnant with their second child. KL Rahul played in the first Test, before suffering a recurrence of a thigh injury. Ravindra Jadeja missed the second with a hamstring strain, and Ashwin a day of the third to visit his unwell mother, while Jasprit Bumrah was rested for the fourth. Mohammed Shami and Rishabh Pant would have played but for long-standing injuries. India handed debuts to five players, including three batters: Sarfaraz, Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal. Shubman Gill grew in stature at No.3, putting a mediocre run behind him to make two hundreds, and averaging 56.

Ashwin, the series’ top wicket-taker with 26, played his 100th Test, and became the ninth to reach 500 wickets, though England occasionally got on top of his off-breaks, especially at Hyderabad, where low bounce gave them confidence to sweep. After that, the truer pitches played to Ashwin’s strengths: he took 5-51 in Ranchi as England crumbled trying to set up a run-chase, then nine at Dharamsala.

England found it harder to go after Jadeja’s left-arm darts and, though he never looked fully fit, he finished with 19 wickets at 25; he dominated the third Test on his home ground in Rajkot, scoring a century and taking a second-innings five-for. The real star, however, was Kuldeep Yadav, the left-arm wrist-spinner who turned the series with 19 at 20 after he was drafted in for the second Test at Visakhapatnam. England never consistently read his variations, either from the hand or off the surface.

Bumrah took only one new-ball wicket, but in four Tests found lethal reverse swing, and induced knee-knocking nervousness in England’s batsmen. He was at the centre of two of the most talked-about dismissals, detonating Ollie Pope’s stumps with a fierce yorker on his way to six for 45 in the second Test, and having Joe Root caught in the cordon trying to play a reverse ramp in Rajkot, a moment from which England never recovered.

The tourists’ youthful spin attack needed the security of above par-totals to compete but, Hyderabad apart, they never materialised. Zak Crawley alone averaged 40, though without a hundred. Root, out of form and runs in the first three Tests, needed the raging debate that followed his reverse ramp to help him refocus. He reverted to his strengths, and at Ranchi scored his first hundred since the Edgbaston Ashes Test the previous June, no doubt benefiting from the absence of Bumrah, who had been tormenting him; Root then massaged his figures with 84 at Dharamsala.

But the two England players who ticked off their 100th Test – Stokes and Bairstow – were largely anonymous. Stokes was rendered strokeless as he struggled to start his innings against spin, and averaged under 20, while Bairstow launched some big sixes but did not reach 40. A middle order of Root, Bairstow and Stokes was the experienced core that had done so much to propel the Bazball era, but they averaged 26 between them, and passed 50 only three times. With Ben Foakes deft behind the stumps but short of runs, the debate about the wicketkeeping role rumbled on.

Above them in the order, Pope summed up England’s frustration. His 196 in Hyderabad was one of the finest English innings in Asia, but he grew more frantic as the series wore on, and didn’t pass 39. His nervousness at the start of an innings spread panic rather than the assurance craved from a No.3 – especially a player who had been brought into the management group and trusted with the vice-captaincy.

Duckett and Crawley again gave England lively starts, averaging 44 for the first wicket at quicker than four and a half an over. India’s bowlers struggled with their lengths, and Rohit seemed hesitant to give the new ball to Ashwin. “I would have loved to bowl at Ben Duckett when he was on zero, and not on 60–70,” he said at Rajkot, where Duckett made a superb 153. When Ashwin did open in the second innings of the last two Tests, he dismissed Duckett both times, conjuring up memories of his travails against him seven winters earlier.

England’s ability to win from almost any position, as at Hyderabad, had been a hallmark of the McCullum–Stokes partnership, but now they showed a propensity to lose from any position too. The most galling instance came in Ranchi, where they allowed India to rally from 177 for seven to 307, cutting what should have been a big lead to 46. When England collapsed in their second innings, India – after a wobble – chased down 192 to win the series. In the previous game, at Rajkot, England had restricted India to 33-3, but allowed them to recover to 445. At 224-2, the tourists were still in the game, but Root’s reverse ramp was the first of eight wickets to fall for 95.

With the batting failing consistently after the first Test, an intolerable pressure fell on the bowlers. Mark Wood was largely ineffective on surfaces that sucked the venom from his pace, and Ollie Robinson a massive disappointment in his only Test, at Ranchi, once again succumbing to injury, and struggling to stay on the field. He dropped a crucial catch, and was ignored by Stokes on the fourth day when India chased down their target. There was at least a statistical fillip when, at Dharamsala, James Anderson became the first – and probably last – seamer to reach 700 Test wickets. He had recovered from a poor Ashes series to take ten wickets in four Tests at 33, respectable given the conditions, but there were times when England needed longer spells from their No. 1 seamer.

Stokes made remarkable progress following knee surgery, quietly building up his workloads in the nets until he was fit enough to send down a few overs in match conditions. When he did come on, in the final game, he bowled Rohit with his first ball since July, in one of those eye-blinking moments great cricketers conjure. It had no effect on the match, but was a reminder of his ability to rebalance the side, so long as his left knee stayed strong.

England had selected their spin attack based on “gut feel”, according to managing director Rob Key, who along with McCullum and Stokes identified tall bowlers with high release points as the likeliest threat on turning pitches. Stokes had sent Key social-media footage of Bashir bowling to Alastair Cook during Somerset’s Championship game against Essex: “Have a look at this – this could be something we could work with on our India tour.” And Bashir, after an upsetting visa wrangle that prevented him from travelling with his team-mates from their pre-tour camp in Abu Dhabi, and ruled him out of the first Test, proved England’s best spinner, finishing with 17 wickets at 33. He was the bowler Stokes turned to when he needed a breakthrough, or a long spell; the loss of his county colleague Jack Leach, who injured his knee at Hyderabad, proved surmountable. Bashir belied his lack of first-class experience, and never looked flustered, even when hammered in Dharamsala: after being hit for three sixes in his first over by Jaiswal, he picked up a five-for, to go with the one he collected at Ranchi.

Hartley, too, stuck at it, recovering from a thrashing by Jaiswal in his first spell on debut to win the Hyderabad Test with 7-62. He was never quite the same threat, but reliably held an end; as well as being England’s top wicket-taker, with 22, he was more economical than Ashwin or Jadeja. His batting was punchy too – no England player managed more than his six sixes.

India were made to work for victory, pushed harder by a visiting team than for some time. Stokes’s lively tactical brain, and confidence in his bowlers, made England more competitive than their lack of experience suggested but, like so many previous teams here, the batsmen’s minds were scrambled by a long series. India’s dominance could be summed up by a composite XI, in which it was hard to argue for any England player apart from Root. He out-batted India’s various No.4s, but did not live up to his high standards, or provide the runs England needed to challenge over five Tests.

England touring party to India, 2023/24

*BA Stokes (Durham), R Ahmed (Leicestershire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), AAP Atkinson (Surrey), JM Bairstow (Yorkshire), S Bashir (Somerset), HC Brook (Yorkshire), Z Crawley (Kent), BM Duckett (Nottinghamshire), BT Foakes (Surrey), TW Hartley (Lancashire), DW Lawrence (Surrey), MJ Leach (Somerset), OJD Pope (Surrey), OE Robinson (Sussex), JE Root (Yorkshire), MA Wood (Durham). Brook flew home, for personal reasons, before the first Test, and Lawrence joined the squad. Ahmed also returned to England for personal reasons, during the fourth.

Head coach: BB McCullum. Assistant coaches: PD Collingwood, JS Patel, ME Trescothick. Strength and conditioning coach: PIB Sim. Performance support coach: MES Saxby. Doctors: A Biswas, GC Rae. Physiotherapist: B Davies. Chef: DJ Pyle. Team operations manager: AW Bentley. Analyst: RJ Lewis. Head of communications: DM Reuben. Digital editor: WTA Turner. Security officer: Y Ali.

First Test at Hyderabad, January 25-28, 2024

Anand Vasu

England won by 28 runs. England 12pts. Toss: England. Test debut: TW Hartley.

An early look at the pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium confirmed the suspicion that India, having been exposed to pace and bounce in South Africa, would ease themselves back into home comforts, and hit England with a rank turner. Experts disagreed on only one thing: when would the surface break up? That made the toss won by Stokes a good one, especially as England – for the first time in their Test history – selected only one seamer: Wood. In a four-man spin attack (Root included), Tom Hartley won his first cap, Rehan Ahmed his second; any hope that Shoaib Bashir might also make a debut had been scuppered by visa problems. India opted for two quicks, but their choice of three spinners suggested they agreed with the tourists’ assessment of the pitch.

The first day was a thrill a minute, yielding 365 runs and 11 wickets, and leaving India on top. Duckett and Crawley had played and missed against the fast bowlers, but pounced on any scoring opportunity. The Bazball approach paid off, until spin came on. With the scoreboard reading 55 as early as the 12th over, Ashwin got one to drift with the arm, and trapped Duckett – whom he had tied in knots when England visited seven years earlier – for a 39-ball 35. Pope then fell to a classic left-arm spinner’s dismissal, a delivery from Jadeja gripping just enough to take the edge to slip. When Crawley came down the pitch to Ashwin and failed to clear mid-off, England had lost three for five.

Bairstow lived dangerously, but he and Root – who overtook Sachin Tendulkar’s total of 2,535 to become the leading run-scorer in Tests between India and England – kept the bowlers at bay for an hour, adding 61. Patel, though, produced a peach to peg back Bairstow’s off stump as he aimed to defend. And when Root top-edged a sweep off Jadeja soon after, the game had swung back in India’s favour. Stokes teed off, and was last out for 70, undone by one from Bumrah that cut back to hit the top of middle. But England’s last three wickets had added 91, lifting them to 246, while Jadeja’s three for 88 off 18 overs left him with his most expensive economy-rate (4.88) in a Test innings in which he had bowled more than four overs. To compensate, he and Ashwin went past the 501 wickets taken in tandem by Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh – a national record.

India’s reply was belligerent. Jaiswal whipped Wood’s first ball over square leg for four, and Hartley’s first as a Test cricketer into the leg-side stands for six, repeating the dose later in the over: after two, India had 19. Hartley’s punishment continued – his first three overs cost 34 – but Stokes kept him on, allowing him to sample the chaos. That included England squandering all three reviews within a Test-record 14 overs. A restless Rohit Sharma skyed Leach to a back-pedalling Stokes at mid-on, but Jaiswal continued fearlessly, and reached the close unbeaten on 76 off 70 deliveries. Among Indians, only Gautam Gambhir, with 95 against Zimbabwe at Harare in 2005/06, had finished the opening day of a Test with a higher score after they had fielded first. Jaiswal had outdone the Bazballers.

Next day, India’s batting unit came good as a group for the first time in a while on a challenging home pitch. Jaiswal provided Root with an anticlimactic return catch in the first over, but Rahul was in sublime touch, until he pulled a half-tracker from Hartley to the lone fielder in the deep. England were not helped when Leach – their tightest and most experienced spinner – injured his knee, and Stokes alternated between giving his bowlers long spells (Root bowled 16 overs, Ahmed ten, Hartley nine) and short bursts. By stumps, Jadeja had shepherded India to an imposing 421-7.

Their lead was already 175, but they began the third day diffidently. Jadeja and Patel added only six in the first eight overs, before the last three fell on 436; Root took two, to finish with his second-best Test figures. Hartley, meanwhile, had got on the board with the wickets of Gill and Rahul, plus a hand in the run-out of Ashwin, but at a cost of 131, and an economy-rate of more than five.

India’s lead was 190, but England were undeterred, racing to 316-6 by the third-day close, a lead of 126. Pope, unbeaten on 148, was playing the innings of his life, reprieved by a bad drop from Patel at backward point when he failed to keep down an attempted reverse sweep off Jadeja on 110. The batsmen were so dominant that it had taken a spell of extraordinary skill and pace from Bumrah to restrict the damage. From 113-1, he found reverse swing to bowl Duckett for 47 off 52, then trapped Root with a ball that tailed in – though not before he had surpassed Ricky Ponting (2,555 runs) to become Test cricket’s leading run-scorer against India. But Pope was hitting boundaries almost at will, often in outlandish places, including one audacious reverse ramp off Jadeja over the keeper. Rohit’s captaincy was unusually subdued. For long passages, India seemed simply to be waiting for a mistake that never came.

On the fourth morning, Pope pressed on, to India’s chagrin. The ball after being steered for a boundary, Bumrah stepped in his way as he took a leg-bye; their shoulders clashed, and Bumrah was handed a demerit point by match referee Richie Richardson. Useful runs from Ahmed and Hartley ensured England retained the momentum, and Pope was in touching distance of a double-hundred when he was last out, bowled for 196 by a Bumrah off-cutter as he attempted a reverse scoop. He had been at the crease for only six hours 13 minutes. For the first time in over a decade, the third innings of a Test in India had topped 400: almost from nowhere, the hosts needed 231.

After three and a bit days of slow burn, India crashed on the fourth. They had begun well enough, with an opening stand of 42. But Hartley struck when Jaiswal came down the pitch and prodded to Pope at short leg. Two balls later, the same combination – with Pope now at silly point – accounted for Gill. When Hartley pinned Rohit, India promoted Patel to No.5, a move some considered defensive. It worked for a time, but Hartley made it 95 for four when he accepted Patel’s simple return offering.

Root broke Hartley’s monopoly, getting one to grip from round the stumps to win an lbw decision against Rahul. From here, the procession to and from the dressing-room was depressing from an Indian perspective, and a vindication of England’s selection and tactics. India were reduced to 119-7 after Stokes brilliantly ran out Jadeja from mid-on, letting go of the ball mid-tumble, and Iyer edged Leach on the drive to slip. A pair of careful 28s from Bharat and Ashwin nullified the spin threat for nearly 22 overs, but England claimed the extra half-hour. Hartley had just bowled Bharat with a beauty, then had Ashwin comfortably stumped by Foakes as he left his crease in search of a big hit. Fun and games from Bumrah and Siraj knocked 25 off the target, but Siraj charged at Hartley, and England had secured an astonishing win.

Hartley’s figures of 7-62 were the best by an England spinner in India for 90 years, and completed an unexpected turnaround from his first-innings mauling. India, meanwhile, had lost only one Test after taking a bigger lead than their 190 here – against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2015/16, when their advantage had been 192. England had won a Test after a bigger first-innings deficit only when following on.

Stokes attempted to put the achievement in perspective. “Since I’ve taken the captaincy on, we’ve had a lot of fantastic moments,” he said. “But I think [with] where we are, and who we’re playing against, this victory is definitely our greatest triumph.” And he was full of praise for Pope, unsurprisingly named player of the match for an innings his captain described as the greatest by an English batsman on the subcontinent. Three years earlier, England had also won the first Test of their series in India, only to unravel. The success of this trip depended on them avoiding a repeat.

Player of the match: OJD Pope.

Second Test at Visakhapatnam, February 2-5, 2024

Vithushan Ehantharajah

India won by 106 runs. India 12pts. Toss: India. Test debut: RM Patidar; S Bashir.

England arrived in Visakhapatnam buoyed by victory in Hyderabad. And they were given a further boost when it emerged that their opponents would be without two more key men: KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja were ruled out through injury, which – along with Virat Kohli’s continued absence – gave India more problems to solve. Rajat Patidar, a 30-year-old from Indore, made his debut; left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav was recalled to the Test side after a gap of more than a year; and seamer Mukesh Kumar came in for Mohammed Siraj, who was rested.

The tourists made two changes. Mark Wood made way for Anderson, 690 wickets to his name. More notable was a debut for the 20-year-old off-spinner, Shoaib Bashir, in place of Somerset team-mate Jack Leach, whose knee had not recovered from bumps taken in the First Test. Leach presented Bashir, who had arrived in India a week after his team-mates because of visa delays, with his maiden cap. Armed with a first-class record of ten wickets in six matches at 67 each, he marked his first day of Test cricket by having Rohit Sharma caught at leg slip.

After they had lost the toss, it was an early boost for England against the run of play, and they chipped away at a scorecard that became littered with false starts. That included Gill, caught behind off Anderson, who extended to 22 his record streak of taking a Test wicket in successive years. The problem for Stokes’s side was that Jaiswal had turned his form from Hyderabad into something worthwhile. He finished the day on 179, having brought up his second Test hundred by launching Hartley over long-on for the third of his seven sixes, the most in a Test innings between these countries, passing five by Ian Botham (twice), Rishabh Pant and Moeen Ali. He eventually fell to Anderson on the second morning for 209 from 290 balls, a knock made all the more remarkable by the fact the next-highest score was Gill’s 34. For India, only Sunil Gavaskar and Vinod Kambli had made a Test double-century at a younger age. Still, with India’s last six wickets falling for 95 on a pitch offering little assistance, England had limited the damage to 396.

Their openers began energetically, adding 59 in ten overs, before Duckett fended Kuldeep to silly point. Crawley looked imperious during a run-a-ball 76, hitting Ashwin out of the attack, and four fours in an over off Bumrah, only to skew Patel towards backward point, one delivery after launching him for four over midwicket; Iyer held a well-judged running catch.

Bumrah now responded to his unaccustomed roughing-up with an astonishing three-part spell, yielding six wickets in 71 balls – his tenth Test haul of five or more, though only his second at home. Root was first to go, edging to slip, but the most devastating dismissal was Bumrah’s second: Pope was left with one stump standing after a yorker blasted out middle and leg. Bairstow went the same way as Root and, for the second time in two matches, Stokes was left despairing at Bumrah’s excellence, bowled by one that swung in, then nipped away. He had rushed to 47, the last meaningful scuffle of the innings, along with a characterful 21 from Hartley, as England scrapped their way to 253 in 56 overs. A deficit of 143, which grew to 171 by stumps, was met with Bazballian optimism from Crawley: “We believe we can chase anything.”

His assessment – not even England’s most outlandish pronouncement of the tour – spoke of the confidence coursing through the team, and it was reflected early on the third morning. In his first two overs, Anderson knocked out Sharma’s off stump, and used a wobble-seam delivery to have Jaiswal caught low at first slip by Root. Wary of botching their third innings, India came to a standstill, none more so than Gill, who was lucky to survive three close calls, twice when he had just four. First, he was given lbw to Hartley, only for a speculative review to show a thin edge. Seven balls later, England reviewed a leg-before shout from Anderson, only for DRS to return an umpire’s-call verdict on the top of middle stump. Then, on 17, an edge off Hartley flew beyond Root’s grasp.

Gill began to emerge from his shell, even while wickets fell: Iyer was brilliantly caught by Stokes over his shoulder, charging back from mid-off, before Patidar edged Ahmed behind to leave India 122 for four, a lead of 265. But Gill motored on to a defiant third Test hundred, its importance both personal and collective: in the 12 innings since his previous century, he had not passed 36. A stand of 89 with Patel took the target beyond 350, before Gill’s dismissal – caught on review after gloving a reverse sweep off Bashir – triggered a collapse of 6-44, including a 45-minute duck for Bumrah. Hartley finished with four, Ahmed three.

England needed 399, more than any team had scored in the fourth innings in India. Yet it spoke of the reputation they had cultivated that Gill rated the state of play only “70–30” in his team’s favour. After another quick half-century opening stand, Duckett was the lone dismissal that evening, Ashwin pocketing him with his fifth ball. England closed on 67-1, with Ahmed, sent in as the “nighthawk”, striking two fours in the final over to hint at something special.

It never arrived, and India’s bowlers had more or less wrapped up the Test with five wickets by lunch on the fourth day. Patel removed Ahmed, then in successive overs Ashwin got rid of Pope and Root, who had sustained blows in the field to his bottom hand, and looked to be feeling the effects during a frenetic 16 off ten. It ended when an attempted hack to mid-wicket looped to backward point. Ashwin’s double strike took him to 97 Test wickets against England, the most for India (leg-spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar had 95).

Yet again, Crawley looked most at ease, taking England to 194-4 in the 42nd over. Thanks to a contentious decision, he got no further. Umpire Erasmus had turned down an appeal from Kuldeep, after a sharp, spinning delivery from over the wicket struck the pad. Without much conviction, Rohit called for a review, and DRS suggested the impact on leg stump was enough to overturn the decision. England were incensed, with Stokes later claiming the technology had “got it wrong”.

India were getting a lot right. Four balls after the departure of Crawley, Bairstow was trapped by Bumrah, to bring about an early lunch, with England six down and more than 200 short. Ten overs later, Stokes was the victim of his own sloppy running, a direct hit from Iyer at square leg catching him short at the striker’s end. Foakes and Hartley added 55 but, either side of Bashir’s removal by Kumar – his only wicket of the series – both succumbed to Bumrah, whose match figures of 9-91 were the best against England by an Indian seamer at home. England’s 292 was creditable: among visiting teams, only Sri Lanka, with 299-5 at Delhi in 2017/18, had made more in the fourth innings in India. But they were left to lament their failure to turn a first-innings score of 114-1 into anything bigger than 253.

With the series squared, both teams opted for time off in the nine-day gap before the Third Test in Rajkot. While the India squad returned to their homes, England went back to the UAE, where they were met by families for rest and recuperation – plus a spot of golf.

Player of the match: JJ Bumrah.

Third Test at Rajkot, February 15-18, 2024

Ali Martin

India won by 434 runs. India 12pts. Toss: India. Test debut: DC Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan.

Stokes shrugged off the fanfare of becoming the 16th to play 100 Tests for England, describing it as “just a number”, and ensuring the presentation of his special cap took place in private. The number at the end of the game, however, was less easy to dismiss: having torn down the bunting for the visiting captain, India claimed their largest victory by runs, and inflicted on England their heaviest defeat overseas.

It was fitting that Jaiswal and Jadeja, the stars of the show, should combine to seal a 2-1 lead late on the fourth day, just as thoughts were percolating about the extra half-hour. Jaiswal’s catch at long-off handed Jadeja his 13th Test five-for, and ended a fun but futile 33 from Wood, last man to fall in England’s paltry 122. At one stage, they had been 50-7, Jadeja extracting far more bite from the surface than the tourists’ spinners. On the first day, having rushed back from the hamstring strain that ruled him out at Visakhapatnam, he had helped rescue India from 33-3, scoring a vital 112, and adding 204 with Rohit Sharma, the highest stand of the series.

But it was an unbeaten 214 from Jaiswal in the third innings that broke England – a punishing, pyrotechnic display in which his 12 sixes equalled the record for a Test innings, set by Wasim Akram for Pakistan against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura in 1996/97. A fantasy innings had set up a fanciful equation – not that England saw it that way. At the close on the third day, their backs to the wall after subsiding in response to India’s 445, Duckett was asked about a realistic target. “The more the better,” he replied. “This team is all about doing special things and creating history. They can have as many as they want, and we’ll go and get them.” A fully paid-up Bazball acolyte, and emboldened by his own dashing 153, Duckett spoke with a twinkle in his eye, but the words aged like milk in the sun. So did his remark that Jaiswal, forged on the maidans of Mumbai, had somehow been inspired by England.

The performance of Jaiswal – the first to score more than 100 runs either side of retiring hurt, with back spasms – showed none of the wastage that was becoming inherent in England’s ultra-aggressive approach. This had tipped beyond acceptability on the third day. They had resumed 238 behind, with eight wickets in hand, and Duckett positively glowing after completing an 88-ball century the previous evening – England’s fastest against India, beating Graham Gooch’s 95 in the second innings at Lord’s in 1990. Yet they lost eight for 95. And with Ashwin, who had just secured his 500th Test wicket (Crawley, sweeping to short fine leg), missing the day’s play to visit his unwell mother in Chennai, it suggested they had failed to learn from the recent Ashes Test at Lord’s.

Back then, Australia had lost off-spinner Nathan Lyon to injury, only for England to throw it away against the quicks. Now, they had a chance to exploit Ashwin’s absence, by pushing India’s seamers into additional spells, and testing out Jadeja’s hamstring. But Stokes told his side he wanted them bowling after tea. And assertiveness made for profligacy, a cascade of soft dismissals triggered in the day’s fifth over when Root reverse-ramped Bumrah to Jaiswal in the slips. The shot had become his calling card, helping seamers over the cordon as if pitchforking hay over his shoulder. And, on bouncier surfaces, it had paid off. But in dusty Gujarat it felt closer to an act of desperation against a bowler who had cornered him all series. His dismissal became the lightning rod for the criticism now heaped on the team. Scyld Berry, chief cricket writer for The Daily Telegraph, called it “the worst, most stupid, shot in the history of England’s Test cricket”.

During this game-breaking session, Kuldeep Yadav bowled a bewitching spell, 12 overs of flight, dip and judicious use of the googly to render irrelevant Ashwin’s absence. After Rohit rethought his fields following Duckett’s blitz, Kuldeep trapped Bairstow with a ripper, then had Duckett toe-ending to cover; only Harry Brook (115 balls against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 2022/23) and Stokes (135 balls against South Africa at Cape Town in 2015/16) had made a faster 150 for England than Duckett (139). And, at 299-5, they were still in the game. But Stokes holed out off Jadeja after working hard for 41, and Mohammed Siraj vaporised the lower order, proving that Bumrah was not the only reverse swinger in town.

Root’s sorry match had begun on the first morning with a pivotal drop off Rohit, an edge found by Hartley that flew low to his left at slip, and from which India’s captain, on 27, did not look back. With Wood, Anderson’s 25th new-ball partner in Tests, having whistled up two early strikes, and Patidar miscuing to cover a delivery from Hartley that gripped, the wicket of Rohit would have left India 47-4, and brought debutant Sarfaraz Khan to the crease. Instead, the ball dulled, the early moisture evaporated, and Jadeja knuckled down, allowing Rohit to hammer his first significant score of the series. By the time the barrel-chested Sarfaraz finally emerged, it was 237-4. A symbol of India’s strength in depth, he had scored more than 3,000 Ranji Trophy runs at 81, and made up for lost time with a belligerent 66-ball 62. It brought tears to the eyes of his father and coach, Naushad, in the stands, and was ended only by a calamitous call from Jadeja. Having crawled to 99, Jadeja pushed Anderson to mid-on, changed his mind too late over a single, and watched in horror as Wood’s direct hit caught Sarfaraz short. When Jadeja brought up three figures next ball, his sword-twirling celebration lacked its usual conviction. He fell the following morning to a return catch from Root, but Dhruv Jurel, the debutant wicketkeeper from Agra, crafted 46, and India’s final three wickets piled on 114.

England began their reply on five without loss, after penalty runs were signalled by umpire Joel Wilson in the 102nd over of India’s innings, following warnings to Jadeja and Ashwin for running down the pitch. When Bumrah’s first delivery was a no-ball, the scoreboard read six for none without a legal delivery bowled – rapid, even by Bazball standards. Duckett’s third Test century, a whirlwind of sweeps, orthodox and reverse, had Rohit chasing shadows, and helped England clatter 176 between tea and stumps, of which he made 114. In Tests in India, only Virender Sehwag had managed more in a session, making 133 on the second evening against Sri Lanka at Mumbai in 2009. But almost as bad for England as an eventual deficit of 126 was the fact that Anderson and Wood had enjoyed just 71 overs of respite, having spent 131 in the field; perhaps, in this respect, Bazball had inspired Jaiswal. In the second half of his two-part double-century, he treated Anderson, 19 years his senior, like a novice, despatching him for three consecutive sixes – a flick over fine leg, a drive over extra cover, a thrash down the ground. Along with a more considered 91 from Gill, and a tub-thumping 68 not out from Sarfaraz, Jaiswal had tenderised the attack, and allowed Rohit to become the first captain to declare against Stokes’s England. India’s tally of 28 sixes for the Test was a record, beating their own 27 against South Africa at Visakhapatnam in 2019/20.

The farcical run-out of Duckett, and the dismissal of Crawley by Bumrah in the last over before tea, suggested a swift kill, especially with Ashwin now back from Chennai. Jadeja drove the ball into the surface to send back Pope, Bairstow and Root, and induce a sharp catch from Jurel to remove Foakes. When Wood holed out, Jadeja kissed the turf. Stokes chuntered about the Crawley lbw – a Hawk-Eye projection that appeared to show the ball missing the stumps, but was easily explained by a graphics glitch. The data was sound, and the margin of defeat made it a nicety.

Player of the match: RA Jadeja.

Fourth Test at Ranchi, February 23-26, 2024

Cameron Ponsonby

India won by five wickets. India 12pts. Toss: England. Test debut: A Deep.

England’s dream of squaring the series was rudely disturbed on the third day. When it began, India were seven down in their first innings, still 134 adrift; but by the close, they needed only another 152 – with all ten wickets left – for victory. Next day, after a wobble, they completed their 17th consecutive home series win.

This was one of their best. They had rested Jasprit Bumrah, lost the toss on the trickiest pitch of the series, and at one stage found themselves seven down and 176 behind. The match looked lost. But, through talent new and old, they overcame the disadvantages, and the deficit. Jurel contributed a high-class 90, to drag India to within 46 of their opponents, before the spinners skittled England for 145. For the third match in a row, the tourists had let slip a strong position in the face of India’s relentlessness.

Until now, the pitches had caused little controversy. But India’s decision to rest Bumrah came with whispers about a rank turner, as Ranchi – fiefdom of the former Indian captain MS Dhoni – hosted only its third Test. Stokes and Pope, eyebrows raised skywards, described the pitch as “interesting”. Stokes said he had “never seen” a pitch like it: there was a long line down its length, with one half cracked and plated, the other smooth and true. No one knew what to expect, but both captains were ready to yell “bat” as soon as coin touched ground.

When Stokes did just that, England fans cheered: while the toss did not guarantee victory, losing it might have spelled defeat. The first morning was full of entertainment. Debutant seamer Akash Deep produced a superb opening spell, dismissing England’s top three, and twice bowling Crawley: first when he had four, only for a no-ball to rob Deep of a maiden Test wicket, then again less than an hour later, for 42. In the meantime, he got rid of Duckett after a vivacious opening stand of 47 and – thanks to an inspired review from Rohit Sharma – Pope, who had ventured down the pitch to his second ball, and looked aghast when DRS flashed up three reds.

Deep, chosen ahead of his Bengal team-mate Mukesh Kumar, had thrown himself into cricket nine years earlier after his father and brother died in the space of eight months. “When you lose two family elders in one year, you don’t have anything left to lose,” he said after the first day. While his father, Ramji Singh, had urged him to study, his mother, Laduma Devi, encouraged his passion for cricket. The moment when he received his Test cap, Laduma looking on, was one of the images of the series.

From 57-3, Root and Bairstow put on a brisk 52. But Bairstow fell to Ashwin, who became the first Indian bowler to claim 100 Test wickets against two teams (Australia were the other), while Stokes – grinning ruefully – all but walked for lbw after being hit on the ankle by a pea-roller from Jadeja. England staggered to lunch at 112-5.

As a frantic morning gave way to afternoon calm, Root and Foakes put on a careful 113 in 43 overs, only for Foakes to carelessly flick Siraj to midwicket. Root, however, a week after enduring intense criticism for his dismissal at Rajkot, was building a century full of patience and touch where others had favoured speed and power. It was a world-record tenth against India, and his 31st in all; from 219 balls, it was also England’s slowest of the Bazball era. With him was Robinson, who had replaced Mark Wood and was playing his first competitive match since suffering a back spasm during the Third Ashes Test at Headingley more than seven months earlier. They put on 102 for the eighth wicket, with Robinson contributing a maiden Test fifty. For the tourists, the only disappointment was that the last three wickets fell in a hurry, all to Jadeja, leaving Root unbeaten on 122, and slightly unfulfilled.

Still, a total of 353 looked plenty on a pitch that had displayed uneven bounce from the start. And England’s grasp grew stronger thanks to a superb effort from Bashir, in for Rehan Ahmed, who had left the tour for personal reasons. Bashir bowled a 31-over spell that removed four of India’s top five, including the in-form Jaiswal for 73, and with Hartley’s help reduced them to 177-7. It was the longest spell for England since Graeme Swann in 2013.

Until the second evening, everything they tried came off, not least when Sarfaraz Khan edged Hartley to slip two balls after Stokes had encouraged him to aim through the off side by pushing the cover fielder to the boundary. But as England’s tail had wagged, so did India’s. Kuldeep Yadav bunted his way to a two-hour 28, providing crucial support to Jurel’s starring act. In all, the last three wickets added 130 – though England’s lead of 46 would have been greater had Robinson not put down Jurel at mid-wicket off Bashir, 59 runs into his eventual 90. Despite his batting, it was not a happy return for Robinson, who yet again twinged his back. He often dropped below 75mph, overstepped six times, and cost four an over; in India’s second innings, he didn’t bowl. England were not pleased.

What came next was the scenario every touring team in India dread: a collapse against spin that seems more contractual obligation than sporting event. With Ashwin and Jadeja opening the bowling, England lost Duckett and Pope – completing his first pair in first-class cricket – in consecutive deliveries, before Ashwin trapped Root on review with a ball that pitched on leg stump by a coat of lacquer.

Crawley led England to 110-3, a lead of 156, but the floodgates opened. He was bowled by a beauty from Kuldeep, who then bowled Stokes – not properly forward – with another that kept low. In all, Ashwin and Kuldeep took nine wickets, as England’s last seven fell for 35. When Ashwin removed Anderson (for an England-record fourth pair), he equalled Anil Kumble’s Indian record of 35 Test five-fors, having already overtaken his tally of 350 wickets in India, another record.

That left India needing 192, though any notion of an awkward chase was apparently nipped in the bud that evening, as Jaiswal and Rohit bludgeoned 40 from eight overs. Stokes’s decision to give the new ball to Root and Hartley meant that, for only the fourth time in Test history (and the third in India), the attack had been opened by eight different bowlers.

India had had never lost a home Test when needing fewer than 200 for victory, but England remained bullish. And next morning they gave them a scare: in 21 tense overs, 84 for none became 120 for five, with Bashir removing Jadeja and Sarfaraz in two balls. Another 72 looked distant, but again Jurel calmed nerves, as he and Gill took India home with barely a false shot. Just once, when Jurel miscued a hack that fell short of Bashir at point, did England threaten a wicket. Otherwise, this was a clinical display.

Stokes tried to stick to the script, and celebrated another great Test involving England. A year earlier, almost to the day, he had said much the same after his team lost by one run at Wellington. That had been a second defeat in 12 matches, but this result spelled the first series loss of his tenure, and a fifth defeat in nine. The words may have been similar, but the tone felt different: for England, this one really hurt.

Player of the match: DC Jurel.

Fifth Test at Visakhapatnam, March 7-9, 2024

Anand Vasu

India won by an innings and 64 runs. India 12pts. Toss: England. Test debut: DB Padikkal.

As long tours often do, this one ended in a hurry. For four Tests, England had sporadically competed with a resourceful Indian side. Now they were blown away, going down by an innings to become the first Test team in more than a century to lose 4-1 after winning the opening game. “We’re man enough to say we’ve been outplayed by the better team,” said Stokes, after his first series defeat in charge. But he also struck a defiant note, insisting his team would not “let the last two years go to waste over this series”.

England’s heaviest defeat of the Stokes era was not the ideal backdrop for Anderson’s moment of history. On the third and final morning, he had Kuldeep Yadav caught behind to become the first fast bowler – and the third in all, after Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne – to take 700 Test wickets. Anderson did celebrate, but with understandable sheepishness: the doughty Kuldeep had just added 49 for the ninth wicket with Bumrah, India’s lead was beyond 250, and Anderson had needed eight matches since the start of the 2023 Ashes to tick off the final 15 wickets of his latest milestone. In four Tests here, he had bowled well in bursts but, at 41, he was not the workhorse required by an England side lacking experienced spinners. By the end, he looked weary. “Maybe I’d have been more excited if we’d won the Test or the series,” he said.

If the moment was not picture-perfect, it was certainly picturesque: the English painter Andy Brown, commissioned by the BCCI to capture the series on canvas, was in clover. With the game taking place in the stunning foothills of the Himalayas, fears of sleet and freezing temperatures came to naught. And if there was a chill in the air, the sun shone brightly enough to encourage shirtsleeves among the few thousand England fans who had arrived for a bucket-list Test; congregating at the Pavilion End, they got the best views of the mountains beyond. The hospitable conditions extended to a flat pitch, described by Stokes as “absolutely belting”. But that made England’s performance all the more galling, especially after he had won his third – and perhaps best – toss of the series.

Armed with parkas and branded beanies, his team had turned up in Dharamsala upbeat after spending the long break since Ranchi either golfing in Bangalore or chillaxing in Chandigarh. Despite losing the series, Stokes spoke of the “massive progress” his team had made. As Crawley and Duckett battled through a tricky period against high-class newball bowling to share a stand of 64, it appeared the progress might be rewarded. At 175-3 midway through the afternoon, England had a platform. But that was as good as it got: in three overs, and without adding a run, they lost Bairstow, Root and Stokes, each using up a review. Suddenly, England needed a miracle of Hyderabadi proportions. Yet they were too frazzled, and India simply too good, for lightning to strike twice.

Bairstow, like Ashwin, had celebrated his 100th Test in a build-up not short on ceremony. He was joined by his mother, sister, partner, and nine-month-old son, Edward, plus a raft of friends. The family members had all been in the team huddle on the first morning, when Root gave a moving speech about Bairstow’s rocky road to the milestone; Bairstow did not hide his pride or emotion. Ashwin, the 14th Indian to get there, tried to escape the limelight, describing it as “just another game”, as Stokes had at Rajkot. But Ashwin’s team-mates had other ideas, holding a ceremony to hand over a commemorative cap, then giving him a guard of honour.

By now, he and his fellow spinners had a firm grip on England’s batsmen, Bairstow included. In the first innings, Kuldeep took five of the first six wickets to fall, including his 50th in Tests, from his 1,871st delivery, faster than any spinner since England’s Johnny Briggs in the 19th century. In the second, Ashwin also hoovered up five of the first six. England’s first-innings 218 was followed by a collapse to 113-6, with India’s 477 in between a better reflection of conditions. England’s top seven looked shot. Only Root and perhaps Crawley – their most consistent batsman since the start of the Ashes – were playing better than at the midpoint of the series.

Duckett and Pope had each tested Stokes’s theory that there is “no such thing as a bad shot”. Having swept so well, Duckett was twice dismissed trying to strike spin down the ground, which is not his strength. Pope, meanwhile, advanced so far down the pitch in the final over before lunch on day one that he was barely in the same camera shot when Jurel whipped off the bails; in the second innings, he top-edged an ill-advised sweep.

Bairstow batted as if destiny had earmarked a century. Instead, he made his sixth and seventh scores in the series between 25 and 39. In the 49 balls he faced in total, he thrashed five fours and five sixes, and was dismissed twice by Kuldeep. Stokes was again caught on the crease twice by spinners, and finished with 199 runs, including seven scores of 15 or below; his second-innings average was under eight. Foakes managed a similar total, and was left with the tail in the first innings, but failed to help Root – last man out – in the second, playing a horrible sweep when England needed his usual brand of sensible support.

By contrast, India’s batsmen were purring. Answering a meagre total on a first-day pitch, Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma flew to 104 inside 21 overs. Bashir – who, like the dropped Ollie Robinson, had been unwell on the eve of the game – was welcomed with three huge sixes from Jaiswal, who took his haul for the series to 26, and became the second Indian, after Sunil Gavaskar (twice), to top 700 runs in a Test series. He also ticked off 1,000 in just his ninth Test; only Don Bradman, in seven, had got there in fewer.

Bashir had Jaiswal stumped that evening, but Gill picked up where he left off. His place had been uncertain a few weeks earlier, but now he was batting beautifully, and advanced on Anderson to send him down the ground for six. He and Rohit eased through a wicketless session, bringing up their second hundreds of the series in short order just before lunch. England looked a mess, with Crawley missing Rohit on 68 at leg slip, and misfields creeping in.

By the time Stokes brought himself on for the first time all winter, England were already 57 behind with nine wickets still to take. Following a knee operation in November, he had been building up his bowling since Visakhapatnam, but broke a “pinky promise” to medical staff that he would not bowl competitively. Typically, he struck with his first delivery, 251 days after he had last bowled, hitting Rohit’s off stump with a beauty that arced in, then nipped away past the outside edge. Watching from the sidelines, Brendon McCullum shook his head in disbelief.

An over later, Anderson bowled Gill – who had been telling him it was time to retire – but the breakthroughs mattered little. Together came Devdutt Padikkal, India’s fifth debutant of the series, and Sarfaraz Khan, a veteran of three games. They shared a lively stand of 97, putting to bed any hope of an England fightback. The ease with which Padikkal slotted in at No.4 after a warm-up injury to Rajat Patidar – the only disappointment among India’s newcomers – illustrated their depth. The fringe players had all been tuned up with appearances for the A-team against the Lions, and Padikkal was primed to thrive, thanks to a heady mix of Ranji Trophy form and IPL experience.

Both he and Sarfaraz were dismissed by the industrious Bashir, on his way to a second Test five-for. The tail wagged, taking India further out of sight. Victory meant that, for the first time in their 92-year Test history, they had as many wins as defeats (178). Given the flow of talented youngsters into the team, that ratio was surely heading in only one direction.

Player of the match: K Yadav.
Player of the series: YB Jaiswal.