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India continued to tighten their hold on the second Test against England at Edgbaston on Day 3, with Mohammed Siraj’s incisive spell leaving the hosts reeling. Having already lost three wickets late on Day 2, England’s middle order was under pressure to mount a recovery. However, Siraj’s disciplined bowling derailed any such hopes, as he removed both Joe Root and Ben Stokes in quick succession to deepen the hosts’ crisis. Stokes departed for a golden duck, while Root managed just 22 before falling to Siraj. These twin dismissals also dragged England into an unwanted statistical record. With Stokes, Ben Duckett, and Ollie Pope all dismissed without scoring, this marked only the second time in 25 years that three top-six England batters were out for ducks in the same innings in a home Test. The last such instance came at Lord’s against 111 in 2010. England however, won the match by an innings and 225 runs India, who had posted a formidable 587 in their first innings, owed their dominance to captain Shubman Gill’s breathtaking 269. His knock that wasn’t just a personal milestone, but a landmark performance in Indian cricket history.
Gill’s monumental innings shattered multiple long-standing records by Indian batters in overseas Tests. In just his second match as captain, the 25-year-old went past greats like Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, and Sunil Gavaskar to register the highest individual score by an Indian on English soil. He also became the first Indian and Asian captain to score a double century in England.
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“I worked on a few things before the series,” Gill said after the day’s play. “Looking at the results, they are working for me.”
