ENG VS IND: AKASH CUTS DEEP WITH 10 WICKETS AS INDIA CLAIMS BIGGEST WIN IN AWAY TESTS AT EDGBASTON

Needing 536 more on the day to chase down a near-impossible 608, England was bowled out for 271

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Memory and history are tricksters, it is said.

The recent imagery from Headingley, Leeds, of Jasprit Bumrah taking the lone five-wicket haul and his past record of bailing the Indian team out single-handedly on multiple occasions may have led many a supporter to believe that there was no world without the maverick pacer.

However, a winning cricket team is not always a collection of the 11 best players but a unit that is bigger than the sum of its parts. On Sunday at Edgbaston, Shubman Gill & Co., in Bumrah's absence, reiterated one of elite sport's eternal truths to record a magnificent 336-run victory over England in the second Test to level the series 1-1.

India's biggest away triumph (in terms of runs), its first in Birmingham after seven defeats and a draw, and Gill's first as Test captain was fashioned by a top-draw bowling performance on a largely placid day-five pitch, with Akash Deep incidentally Bumrah's replacement in the XI-earning his maiden Test fifer (six for 99) and finishing with career-best match figures of 10 for 187.