ENG vs IND | Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant propel India to driver’s seat in Birmingham

‌Starting the day at 64/1, Karun Nair was India’s first batter to be dismissed on the fourth day of the second Test against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham. He nicked a fuller delivery outside off stump from Brydon Carse to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith in the eighth over of the day. KL Rahul (55), the other overnight batter, completed his fifty before being the next player to depart with the score reading 126. However, Rishabh Pant did not allow England to seize the momentum as he kept them at bay with his counter-attacking innings. The southpaw got off the mark with a four off Josh Tongue before charging the pacer for a straight six in the same over. The Indian vice-captain’s quickfire start ensured that the team added 113 runs in the first session despite losing two wickets.

In the post-lunch session, it was captain Shubman Gill who took up the mantle as he shredded Tongue’s short-ball tactics with a six and two fours in the second over after resumption. He hit another six and four in the pacer’s next over and outscored Pant to reach his fifty in the 42nd over. Soon, the left-handed batter also got to his fifty before falling to Shoaib Bashir, trying to up the scoring. Pant’s quickfire 58-ball 65, which included eight fours and three sixes, took India’s overall lead past the 400-run mark. However, Shubman Gill continued in the same vein to bring up another century in the match, only the second Indian player after Sunil Gavaskar to score a double-hundred and a hundred in the same game. With Gill leading from the front, India walked in for tea at a dominant position of 304/4.

The Indian skipper’s knock finally came to an end at 161, after hitting 13 fours and eight sixes, when he was caught by Bashir off his own bowling. He walked off owning the record for most runs in a Test by an Indian batter, second overall, with a tally of 430 runs. Soon, India declared their batting essay at 427/6 setting the home side with a monumental target of 608 runs for an improbable win.

England started their chase on the wrong note, losing both their openers within the fifth over with the score reading 30. Zak Crawley departed for a nought while Ben Duckett left after a cameo of 25 from 15 balls. India had the perfect end to the day when pacer Akash Deep went through Joe Root’s defence to dismiss the veteran batter in the 11th over. England were 72/3 when stumps were drawn on the penultimate day with 536 more runs required for an improbable win. For India, Akash had recorded figures of 2/36 while fellow pacer Mohammed Siraj had one to his name.