The Test series between England and India has been concluded. The 5th and final Test ended on Monday with India prevailing by 6 runs. The main talking point of the Test was the equation that stood on the final day. The hosts required a further 35 runs for victory while India required 4 wickets for victory. The result was unpredictable and could've gone either way.
56 minutes of hell. 56 minutes of heaven. 56 minutes of the wildest ride of your life. 56 minutes that will change you forever.
It is enough time to move from the northern-most part of the Victoria Line to its lower reaches, brush shoulders as you walk up the escalator of Vauxhall Station and turn into the Harleyford Road to see the Kia Oval on the horizon. It's enough time to find yourself a whole new world.
If is enough time to believe in new heroes. Enough time to laud old ones. Enough time to have your heart broken. Enough time to count yourself lucky that Test cricket, handed down by older generations more than it is ever picked up by newer ones, was handed to you.
It's enough time, on this rare occasion, to pick it up as a new convert. It's because there woul've been some in this pocket of south London who will have experienced Test cricket for the first time on Monday. Firstly, welcome. Usually, it lasts longer than this. And no, you will never see anything like this again.
The very existence of List A and T20 cricket comes from the idea that the longest format is too long, too convoluted and too inconvenient to really grab you. Who knew all it takes was a small taste of the hard stuff to grab you by the throat and stir your soul.
This was 100% proof, undiluted, unhinged Test cricket. All you needed was a shot of 56 minutes. No human body, not even those reared on it, including those out there providing the action, could've dealt with much more.
Day five at the Kia Oval was sold out well before this match threatened to spill over from Sunday's longer-form chaos. The gripping finale of the third Test, on the other side of the river at Lord's, had resulted in Surrey selling over 5 000 day five tickets in 24 hours. Eventually, 17 545 punters had what, unbeknownst to them, would prove to be the most golden of tickets.
At only £25 a pop for adults (20 for members) and £1 for kids, it was a sound investment given that refunds would be given if the day saw no play. Rarely has just 8.5 overs felt like a steal.
Such pricing usually brings a different kind of crowd to the first four days - especially at Lord's - but, down at The Oval, the mix of English and Indian fans was as it had been throughout the match already. The state of the game, however, created a more feverish atmosphere, making this bowl ground feel taller and deeper and even more self-contained. For 56 minutes, there was no outside world, for the outside world was every bit as transfixed with what was going on in here. Even the construction on the new apartment blocks in the old Gasholders ground to a halt.
The clamour as the players entered the field was louder than it had been all match. The English roars when Jamie Overton pulled the first ball for four were more guttural. The Indian jubilation when victory was sealed in Mohammed Siraj's 186th over of the series came crashing back and forth like Atlantic-sized waves in a goldfish bowl.
The overnight break helped add to the tumult, even amid the fury of Sunday's hastily called stumps, though, an extra night's sleep brought anything but. A new day's new opportunity was now riddled with even more jeopardy.
How on earth did 35 more runs turn into the impossible job when 301 of the 374 had been cleared with such ease? Since when has getting through a tail that includes a man with only one functioning arm come replete with truly eternal legacy-making rewards and, thus, incomprehensible pressure?
There were simpler questions, too. Who wanted it? Who will be the one we were all asking ourselves - who could bear it? A familiar trope of Test cricket is that, at its best, it is a universal force. Happening to people, beyond their control and comprehension.
That does a disservice to the protagonists. To Joe Root and Harry Brook, who dragged this fourth innings into legendary territory. Finally, Siraj, who had bowled on 18 of the 25 days of these five Tests, sending down 50 or more balls on 12 of them. His 1 122nd delivery (including extra balls), sent down with as much vigour as the previous 1 121, was his fifth-fastest of them all at 89mph/143kph. That will live forever.
Moments like these always give you heroes. They also give you kindred spirits. Those you are drawn to as much for their heroics as their fallibility.
Akash Deep, face down in the green beyond the boundary at midwicket, palms still stinging from Gus Atkinson's heave to cow, wondering if he'd be to blame for an impending loss. Wicketkeeper, Dhruv Jurel, wanting that same turf to swallow him as Siraj and Shubman Gill berated him for missing the stumps with an underarm that would have sealed the match. His shot at immortality scuttled a yard past the striker's stumps.
Atkinson crestfallen, one hit away from a tie that would have given England the series win, doubled over, smelling the earth where his off stump used to be. A lionhearted Chris Woakes, dislocated left shoulder strapped to his torso, secured by a sleeveless jumper, arm guard on his "wrong" side with a view to batting southpaw.
Even umpire, Ahsan Raza, assuming the role of good Samaritan, helping the infirm Woakes readjust himself after sprinting the bye Jurel failed to prevent, a moment that left his left arm loose despite all the binding.
Was 2-2 a fair result? On balance, yes. England's failure to punch their card for a hat-trick of 370-plus chases against India should be regarded as a misstep from 301-3 and 332-4.
That only enhances India's feat in squaring the series, even if they will depart a long tour with issues of their own. Selection decisions remain inconsistent, and their batting needs to take cues from their bowling when it comes to getting a grip of sessions that are turning against them.
Test cricket has been going on for almost 150 years and we were still treated to a one-of-a-kind finish. Perhaps more importantly, at a time when other Test-playing nations are unwelcome and unable to participate in a series that allows such fairytales, both sides should count themselves lucky. Lucky to play regularly in a format that can lift you to higher plains. Lucky to afford to do it.
As it happens, Monday was the 20-year anniversary of the start of the 2005 Edgbaston Test between England and Australia. A Test that, ultimately, defines an Ashes series regarded as the greatest ever.
That two-run victory was England's slimmest margin. Here in 2025, India bagged theirs, by six. Maybe the universe is up to something. Many have wondered throughout these five Tests if the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy could rival 2005's offerings. In these 56 minutes, it did.
England were denied the series against India on Monday after the tourists clinched victory in the fifth Test at The Oval to draw the series 2-2. The match headed into a fifth day after rain halted play on Sunday. And Chris Woakes was forced to bat as England sought to get over the line, despite the fact he was batting one-armed due to a dislocated shoulder.
The series was enthralling and the decider in London proved the same as India secured their narrowest Test match win ever - by just six runs. Mohammed Siraj took nine wickets in the match, and five in the second innings, as he thwarted Woakes to secure a draw for the visitors.
Proceedings got underway at Headingley at the end of June as England won by five wickets. The Edgbaston Test followed at the start of July as India won by 336 runs. A tight encounter at Lord’s in the third Test resulted in another win for England; with the Three Lions clinching victory by 22 runs. The fourth Test at Old Trafford ended in a draw to set up a nervy final Test in London.
The two sides were desperate to gain the advantage in the fifth Test, with India getting the upper hand during the opening days of action. The home side were given a target of 374, which meant they would need to record their second-highest Test chase ever to win the series.
England appeared to be on their way to rack up the runs they required on Sunday but the match was paused due to a heavy downpour, with England needing 35 runs with four wickets remaining. And despite the fact the rain soon stopped, Test chiefs were unable to get the match restarted as the players were told to come back for a fifth day.
India came out with ferocity on Monday morning as Jamie Smith, Craig Overton and Josh Tongue fell early on.
Woakes was forced into action as England’s final batter after injuring his shoulder while attempting to prevent a boundary in the first innings. He joined fellow batter, Gus Atkinson, with the duo needing 17 runs to win the match and the series for England.
Atkinson smashed a six before adding another few runs as Woakes contended with what appeared to be agonising pain while running. Atkinson attempted to keep the Warwickshire man away from batting duties, with the match hanging on a knife edge. The Surrey man was eventually bowled, with India winning the Test by six runs.
England captain, Ben Stokes reflected: "Another hard-fought game, right down to day five. Both teams have put so much energy and effort into this series - t’s been amazing to be a part of."
"I’m bitterly disappointed we couldn’t get over the line here, but I’m incredibly proud of my team and everything they’ve thrown into it. We would have loved to come away with the series win, but it wasn’t meant to be."
With the dust settling on one of the great Test series of the modern era, culminating in India’s thrilling six-run win to draw the series 2-2 in the final Test at The Oval, former England captain, Michael Vaughan, has hit the current crop with some home truths.
Rightly so, most of the English press spent the wash up of the incredible final day hailing the bravery of the injured Chris Woakes to walk out at number 11 with his arm in a sling, the lion-hearted Mohammed Siraj for his match winning five-wicket haul and the series as a whole for 25 days of captivating Test cricket.
Vaughan called out the elephant in the room, saying that England botched their chance to win the series that was said to be the best since the 2005 Ashes by BBC commentator, Jonathan Agnew.
Book-ending the series with successful run chases of more than 370 would have been an astonishing feat but England had only themselves to blame for falling short of such an accomplishment, according to Vaughan.
The Fox Cricket commentator was also not the only former England skipper to suggest that the shortcomings of days four and five presents troubling signs ahead of the Ashes in Australia this summer.
In his column in the Telegraph, Vaughan stressed that he didn't want to be too harsh on a side that effectively played with ten men from day one onwards following Woakes’ shoulder injury. They were also missing captain, Ben Stokes, with a shoulder injury of his own.
The finger could be pointed at England’s fielding as they dropped six catches in India’s second innings. A re-cast bowling line-up conceding 64 extras across a tight Test match was costly too.
"But the truth is England panicked," Vaughan said of England’s batting. When Brook departed, skying a simple catch to cover as his bat flew out of his hands to square leg in a bizarre end to a sensational innings of 111 from just 98 balls, the hosts needed just 73 more runs with six wickets in hand.
Stokes shrugged off any suggestion that Brook had cost his team despite scoring his 10th Test century, in just his 30th Test match. On the Sky Sports Cricket podcast, former England captain, Nasser Hussain, said that England’s white-ball skipper must have better match awareness.
Hussain said, citing the treatment of Kevin Pietersen as an example: "We used to give KP stick when KP would say, 'that’s the way I play'. "Now, you do have to play the situation as well. And that’s what Harry may have to learn and add to his game and learn. And maybe from this, the people below him, once put under pressure in a certain situation, may collapse in a heap."
"So next time, even though it’s your shot, play the situation to get your team closer to the line. But I cannot be critical if someone’s got 10 hundreds in 50 innings and plays the way he does."
Those that came after Brook did collapse in a heap. Stokes’ replacement, Jacob Bethell, came and went.
The 21-year-old, who is still yet to score a century in A professional match, was completely out of sorts having been thrust into the side for the series finale off the back of one first class match, two ODIs and six T20s since the beginning of June.
He was eventually bowled for 5 from 31 deliveries, missing a wild slog to hand Prasidh Krishna one of his four scalps.
Rather than the shot itself — The Guardian’s chief sports writer, Barney Ronay, suggested that Bethell looked like he was batting with a, "stale baguette" — Vaughan, along with Hussain and Atherton, lamented the management of Bethell in the lead-up to his reintroduction to the side.
"I would actually like to sit down with (managing director) Rob Key and (selector) Luke Wright and ask them this: when you were 21, would you like to be thrown into a Test match on the back of no cricket?," Vaughan wrote.
"If they say they would not have minded, they are lying." Joe Root was the last to fall on day four, with Krishna finding his outside edge after a well-made 105, his 39th century in Test cricket. It was the batting on the final morning that Vaughan was most critical of.
Jamie Smith (2); Jamie Overton (9) and Josh Tongue (0) fell within ten runs of one another to leave Gus Atkinson (17) with the support of the one-armed Woakes at the non-striker’s end. The entire final day was one big moment of madness, there was no cool head to see England home and the inability to secure a series win ultimately goes down as an indictment on the Bazball regime.
"Of course you can look at it two ways. It is a great achievement to get so close, but when you have got 70 to win, you should waltz home in your own conditions," Vaughan said. "England had done the hard work. They had reached the point where they should have won the game and they did not."
“They are great to watch and garner so much attention because of their style of play, but that has also been their problem so far." For England’s failure to seize big moments, India’s ability to get themselves off the canvas was a staple of a gripping series.
New captain ,Shubman Gill’s knocks of 269 and 161 at Edgbaston inspired them to a series-levelling victory after being the better side for four days in the series opener at Leeds before England motored down the target of 371 on the final day, led by Ben Duckett’s 149.
After they were defeated in a 22-run thriller in the third Test at Lord's, India had their backs against the wall in Manchester, losing their first two wickets without scoring while being 311 runs behind, only for centurions Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to complete an incredible escape act.
They appeared to be down and out again at The Oval. England were 42 runs from a 3-1 series victory with Root and Bethell at the crease before India removed those two in quick succession to give themselves a sniff heading into the final day.
It could not be scripted. No one knew what was coming next, hence why the BBC’s Jonathan Agnew was one of several esteemed voices to regard the highest-scoring five-Test series as the best since England’s 2-1 Ashes win in 2005.
Just as that 18-year drought breaking triumph for England had, this series possessed the outright bizarre. It is dumbfounding that India’s two victories came in the absence of the amazing Jasprit Bumrah.
At the start of the series, most would have expected England’s two victories to come while the great fast bowler was sidelined; akin to their wins in 2005 when Glenn McGrath sat out after infamously rolling his ankle on a cricket ball at Edgbaston.
For all the absurdness, The Guardian’s Barney Ronay wrote that it was, "simply time for hats off here" and paid credit to England’s Bazballers with a potential era shift looming after the Ashes.
"For all the bullshit, the moments of head-scratch, the infuriating asides, these lunatics are producing something entirely new," Ronay wrote.
"'Are You Not Entertained?'" doesn’t really do it justice. Are you not wrung out, frazzled, wowed? It has been the most glorious experiment, moments of beauty, fun and impossible drama set always to its own insistent set of rhythms.
"And who knows, we may not see this again. This may be the thing, right here. Who knows if Stokes will play another Test in England? The plan is to keep rolling on, but Australia tends to be a bookend and England’s captain has been playing at this level for 14 years.
"Woakes may be done. Joe Root, surely not. Mark Wood, not sure. Jofra Archer, not sure. But what a show they have given us."
Australia is not the only side with concerns surrounding its top three heading into the Ashes.
Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope shut down talk of being ousted at the start of the English summer with centuries against Zimbabwe but no one really learned anything about the pair across the five Tests against India.
Pope scored 306 runs at an average of 34 from no. 3, including a century in the series opener at Leeds. He took the reins in Stokes’ absence at The Oval but Vaughan believes that going forward Brook should be handed such a responsibility instead.
Bethell did little in his appearance in the series finale to warrant the calls for him to displace Pope at three in Australia after a promising tour of New Zealand last year where the youngster slotted in at no. three to accommodate Pope taking the gloves.
The Telegraph’s chief cricket writer, Scyld Berry, believes England may have to find another option in this scathing assessment in his series ratings, in which he gave Pope a score of six out of ten.
"If he could wait for the ball and play it under his eyes, as he did in his Headingley hundred, England would not have to look any further," Berry wrote.
"But it seems he cannot resist throwing his hands at the ball at the very start of his innings. He does not have the technique of a No 3 either when his head falls to the offside and he plays across the line."
Crawley, meanwhile, tallied 290 runs at 32.22 with three half-centuries but he was the only member of England’s regular top seven for the summer to not to reach three figures. The tall right-hander’s career record now reads 59 Tests, 3 313 runs at an average of 31.55 with five centuries.
No one has opened the batting so many times at Test cricket with that low of an average. England have backed themselves into a corner with their selection of Crawley and Berry does not see them changing tack despite another flaw in the 27-year-old’s game being exposed.
"Still averaging 31, no more, but it is too late to change horses now," he wrote. "And the opening partnership is not broken because Crawley and Duckett average 46 per innings. Beware dropping slip catches in Australia: it can erode a batsman’s confidence in his whole game, and Crawley shelled two chances in the Oval Test at third slip. Aussies will give him heaps.”
The most important player for England coming into the trip down under however, is Stokes. Vaughan wrote that when he is fit, England can, "beat anyone," though the opposite is true when he is not.
"When Ben has been captain and the series has been tight, they have won. At the Oval, he was not out in the middle and it showed," he wrote. "With the mentality he brings it is so clear and obvious when he is not out there. He cannot have the same impact when he is stood on the balcony or sat next to McCullum."
As soon as Chris Woakes came out to bat on Monday morning, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj had a quick chat and agreed to deny Gus Atkinson the single on the last ball of the 84th over which would allow Prasidh Krishna to have a crack from the Vauxhall end at the England all-rounder who had walked out, broken arm in a sling, aiming to bat left-handed. Gill asked Siraj to bowl a wide yorker outside off stump to prevent Atkinson from getting bat on ball. The other key element of the plan was for Gill to ask Dhruv Jurel to take off his right glove and be alert for a throw at the stumps in case the batters attempted a bye.
Siraj delivered his end of the bargain, Atkinson failed to connect and both batters set off for the bye. Jurel, though, never took off his glove and his throw was too slow and wide off the stumps, which left India's best fast bowler in this series highly annoyed. "Bola nahin tune usko", [did you not tell him the plan?]," Siraj asked Gill, staring wide-eyed, with a heaving chest. Siraj would continue staring in disbelief at Jurel, who sheepishly jogged to the other end.
Gill would explain after the match why the plan didn't take off, with SIraj now chuckling beside him: "He told me to tell Dhruv to take off his gloves to get the run out. By the time I told Dhruv, he (Siraj) was already running in to bowl. So Dhruv didn't have enough time to drop his gloves and he missed. That's why he said to me why did you not tell him."
In the subsequent overs, until he smashed Atkinson's off stump, Siraj and Prasidh would stick to the same plan on the last ball even as Gill persisted with eight fielders on the boundary. Gill would go on to explain why he did not want to bring in the fielders in for the last ball to Atkinson.
"We felt even in the second-last ball or last ball, we felt if we go wide yorker there's a chance of him (Atkinson) missing, which he did in the first one - Dhruv missed the stumps, which happens. But that was the plan that they have to score. We wanted them to take on the fielders and score in boundaries rather than bringing the field inside and they hit a boundary. We didn't want them to achieve it in one shot. We wanted them to hit maybe two or three shots to be able to achieve the runs because that, I felt, gave us the best probability to be able [to strike], for them to make a mistake and for us to win the match."
Three overs prior to the end of an absorbing first hour on day four, the 25th of England's innings, Siraj asked Gill to have Ravindra Jadeja at backward point. Gill, on second thought, placed Jadeja to deep point. Siraj wasn't impressed only because he didn't want Joe Root to get off strike. Root had just walked in the previous over to replace Ben Duckett. England were 83 for 2 and Siraj's plan was to shackle Root and not allow him the dab, one of his go-to shots.
Root picked up two easy singles in that over, opening the face of the bat and guiding the ball behind square. Before the start of the final over before the first drinks break, Siraj, with both hands raised to his face, pleaded with Gill to bring Jadeja inside the circle. Gill acquiesced. Siraj bowled a maiden and nearly induced an outside edge.
"I told him let's keep the point fielder inside the circle," Siraj said on Monday, "but he told me let him go for his strokes as that could result in a wicket and the match could turn in our favour. His thinking was also right because at that moment he was thinking like a batsman."
While Gill has convinced everyone during the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy that captaincy doesn't affect his run-scoring, there have been questions about other aspects of his leadership. Is he good at reading the situation? Is he a good tactician? Can he communicate clearly with his bowlers?
The above incidents are just two examples that give us a slightly better understanding of Gill's captaincy. They show Gill has his own thoughts but is equally receptive to what his players have to say. Siraj has played with Gill since their India A days and is a contemporary. Both of them also play for Gujarat Titans in the IPL where Gill has been captain since 2024, with Siraj joining in 2025. "There is a mutual understanding between us," Siraj said. "Our communication is very clear. I'm very happy about his growth."
What Gill is telling us is he is not going to be affected by outside chatter about his captaincy. He says he is bold enough to take the "shots" fired at him. There was noise about India selecting only three fast bowlers for a green pitch at The Oval where overcast conditions were predicted for all five days. Gill took that on board and explained why he went a different way.
"Even in this match a lot of people were saying we could have played a fourth specialist bowler, but the guy who played instead of the fourth seamer - Karun Nair, his fifty in the first innings was equally important for us which helped us to get a decent total. You have to understand and weigh what is the most important. We thought on this wicket, three fast bowlers would be able to do the job for us and they delivered. When your decision goes well people praise you and when it doesn't, I am aware that there are going to be shots taken at me which I am fine with because at the end of the day I know that I made a decision which is best for the team."
There were times in this series that Gill had let his emotions run away with him. Day three at Lord's highlighted that. Day five at The Oval, when everything was on the line, he was ice-cold. That is why members of the Indian team's think tank chose him to succeed Rohit Sharma as Test captain. Gill spoke about the things that helped him deal with pressure in a series that was nothing but pressure. "If you are thinking about someone else then the pressure on you goes away," he said. "Even in captaincy when I was batting in this series because I was always thinking what more can I do for the team and if a player is playing low, what can I do. That helps me to take away the pressure off myself."
For Gill and India, this series has been epoch-making. We don't know whether he jots stuff down in his journal, but there are a lot of learnings he will be taking back home. But his core thought process remains intact, to stay balanced, and that, Gill said, will help him grow as a leader. "You should be able to navigate through the highs and lows of life and try to stay balanced throughout. That's what at least I believe in, that I want to be able to stay balanced whether we have won the match, lost the match, I've done well or I have not done well. It's difficult but it's a process. That's the real journey, to be able to stay balanced and I'm still learning but so far so good."
This match and seres has produced some interesting stats.
India's margin of victory in the fifth Test against England at The Oval is their narrowest in Tests in terms of runs. The previous record was 13 runs while defending 107 against Australia in Mumbai in 2004.
The six-run margin is also the joint-third-narrowest defeat for England in Tests.
England's score of 332 at the fall of their fifth wicket in their chase of 374. Only once before has a team scored so many runs for their first five partnerships and still lost. England were 346-5 in a 463-run chase against Australia at the MCG in 1977; but lost by 45 runs.
Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna are the second India pair to take four or more wickets in both innings of a Test. Bishan Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna did it against Australia in Delhi in 1969.
Siraj and Prasidh's performance at The Oval was the 15th instance of two bowlers taking four-fors in both innings for a team and the first since Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann for England against India in Mumbai in 2012-13.
Mohammed Siraj took 23 wickets in the series against England, the joint-highest for an India bowler in a Test series in England; level with Jasprit Bumrah's 23 wickets in 2021-22.
The partnership of 195 runs between Joe Root and Harry Brook is the second-highest in the fourth innings of a Test to end in a defeat. The highest is 204, between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant against England in 2018; also at The Oval.
Root and Brook are only the seventh pair to score hundreds in the fourth innings of a Test and end on the losing side. Rahul and Pant in 2018 were the last of the previous six.
It is now four consecutive Test series' that England have failed to win against India. Their previous series win against India came in 2018, when they won 4-1 at home. England's longest streak without a series win against India is five, between 1996 and 2011.
India's win-loss record of 1 win and 10 losses in the fifth and sixth matches of an away Test series. Before the six-run win at The Oval, India had lost ten of 17 such matches, while seven ended in draws. At home, India have a 7-4 record in 27 such Tests.
As much as I hate to say this, England had the match in the palm of their hands. They could've successfully won the series 3-1. They ended up blowing it big time. In my view, they should've gone slowly and not go all Bazball on it. They should've gone slow and steady on it. I totally agree with Michael Vaughan's assessment.
I believe the series scoreline is fair. The contest was evenly contested. Just as England could've won the series; so, too, could India; provided they capitalised on all the chances that they were given.
England definitely have some decisions to make in preparation for The Ashes later this year. I wouldn't be surprised if the same players are called up.