THE NEW GEN XI

A FRESH BREED OF TENACIOUS YOUNGSTERS LED BY SHUBMAN GILL COMES OF AGE IN ENGLAND

- NIKHIL NAZ

The sound of leather crashing into timber behind him, India's No. 11 Mohammed Siraj sank to his haunches, inconsolable on the last day of the Lord's Test. His 30-ball vigil was over, and so too India's hopes of taking a 2-1 lead in the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Needing 192 to win, India had folded up for 170, falling short by the thinnest of margins. Three weeks on, the ball was in the other hand, so to speak, and this time the sweet sound of it pegging back the off-stump on the fifth day heralded an improbable Indian victory, with Siraj in the thick of things once again. As the Indian pace spearhead swivelled 180 degrees, his hands sweeping the air in a victory celebration reminiscent of his footballing hero Cristiano Ronaldo, there were ecstatic scenes all around London's Oval ground.

The win—by six runs, the merest sliver and the closest in India's Test history—is already being spoken of as one of the country's best overseas. Not quite Gabba 2021 perhaps, a Test win that won us an Australia series, but clearly from the same strain: epic in scale, forged through resilience, and shot through by drama. A series finale, a record chase in the fourth innings, a spicy surface, and a comeback from the brink—all the ingredients of cricketing folklore bubbling under the London sky.

THE FIRESTARTER

There is no denying that this fairy tale at the Oval was born out of the grim determination the side showed in Manchester. When England set the visitors an eye-watering 669 runs to chase down in the fourth Test-leaving open only the chance of losing the Indians opted for resistance rather than resignation.