Gautam Gambhir heaved a sigh of relief as the coach of the Test team of India, following a thrilling win by the young group currently led by Shubman Gill at The Oval, levelling the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. India scraped past England by only six runs in the nail-biting finish, encapsulating one of their greatest Test victories ever in recent history.
Mohammed Siraj was the star of the game as he stepped up in the absence of senior pacer Jasprit Bumrah. Siraj was the Player of the Match, having ended up taking nine wickets in the test (including a swinging five-for) in his first test. The final day had started with England only requiring 35 runs to accomplish a win with four wickets in hand, but a combination of Siraj and Prasidh Krishna was seen as they stole the show as they dismissed the last four batters in a dramatic way to take them over the line.
The victory marked an important milestone for Gambhir, who had been suffering pressure on his performance, which could be best defined as inconsistent in red-ball play in India. Despite leading India to Champions Trophy triumph earlier this year, poor Test returns have seen him under fire, having lost home Test series against New Zealand alongside the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. To further complicate the situation was the resting of stalwarts such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin, and the relatively inexperienced team was left to read its expectations.
After the game, Gambhir complimented the team ethos and an insistence on a new team-centred philosophy:
“This Test team will never be person-centred. It is ever about the team. The boys put up a good fight and received exactly what they deserved.”
The win rejuvenates the Indian effort in the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy and marks the beginning of a new core that is prepared to frame the future of Indian Test cricket.
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