This was Shubman Gill, still only 24, still only 15 innings old at the No. 3 spot, after he and new sensation Dhruv Jurel had walked through burning coal to ensure India a 17th successive home Test series win.
The target seemed always a hair’s breadth away, the pitch not unplayable but deceptively difficult to bat on.As teammates fell inexplicably around him and England’s rookie finger spinner Shoaib Bashir bowled lines so tight you could reel a fish in, the prospect of failure seemed real.
The hyper-active, disorienting field settings by Ben Stokes weren’t helping. Could England wounded and limping from the shocking batting collapse of Day 3 still puncture a ‘Bazball’ sized hole in India’s ego and claw back in the series?
India had failed to deliver the quick killing blow. They had begun the fourth morning only 152 adrift of the target and all 10 wickets in hand, but it had all gone south quickly.
As the day wore on and the sun beat down, the cracks on the pitch started misbehaving. The openers, so fluent on the third evening, soon found the going tough. Yashasvi Jaiswal attempted an extravagant drive at the first ball he faced from Joe Root, but the sharp turn away from the left hander led to his doom. James Anderson, belying his age, took a sharp catch at short third man.
The steady hand of captain Rohit Sharma (55 off 81; 5×4, 1×6) was cut off after he took the dare from Tom Hartley, looked to push the ball to the off-side and managed only a faint edge to wicketkeeper Foakes. Rajat Patidar went for a six-ball duck, his future prospects smashed to bits by Bashir and a wisely placed short leg.
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And then disaster struck twice in two balls. Ravindra Jadeja perhaps still woozy from the lunch — hit a Bashir full toss straight to midwicket. Sarfaraz Khan, full of promise and pep, lunged to defend a sharply-turning, sharply-bouncing delivery, couldn’t reach it and was gone. From 84 for no loss, India were 120/5. At one stage, they had not hit a boundary for 30 overs. Stokes and the spinners had stifled even the singles.
All this while, Gill (52 not out of 124 balls; 2×6) did what any No. 3 worth his salt should. He set up camp in the middle of the battle and took the heat. It was the most arduous test of his resolve, patience and technique against spin, but he was up to it. He used his feet to the offspinners and repeatedly smothered the turn. He later said it was something he had been working on for hours at the nets.
Yet, he needed support, and it wasn’t until first-innings hero Dhruv Jurel (39 not out off 77 balls; 2×4) arrived on the scene that the hushed stands heaved a sigh of relief. Jurel treated Bashir’s hat-trick ball with disdain, smashing it through cover for a rare boundary.
From there, it was watchful accumulation, painful adjustment and quick running between the wickets when they could steal a run or two. It wasn’t until the target had been whittled down to 20 that the hero shots were unleashed, two sixes by Gill off Bashir getting the crowd on its feet. Jurel hit a four and then the winning runs off Hartley, and it was done. The ‘Bazball’ ethos had met its match on Indian soil. Stokes and coach McCullum had lost their first Test series since their appointment in June 2022.
“When you’re playing on a wicket like this, you have to keep the cracks out of the game. If the ball hits the crack, you can’t do much. If it doesn’t, then it’s a good wicket to bat on,” Gill said. Jurel, Player of the Match after his 90 in the first innings turned the game, said, “Gill and I were having mid-pitch discussions on completing small tasks. We approached the chase in sets of only 10 runs each.”
That was how difficult the pitch was to bat on. This slow-burn classic now marks a line in the sand, the point where India’s new generation of cricketers some with first-class experience, some not so much — showed they had the gumption to rise to the red-ball challenge.
England just don’t know when to give up, but it wasn’t their rookie spin attack but the failure of the seasoned batters in the second innings that cost them.
The fifth Test in Dharamshala from March 7 is now of academic interest only and will offer opportunities for both sides to tweak their template if required.