Shubman Gill has put Team India well on path of a well-deserved win in the second Test after visitors' dominant show both with bat and ball on Day 4. After handing them a colossal target of 608 runs, India left England reeling at 72/3 by the close of Day 4. Shubman Gill led India from the front and smashed and followed up his first innings double cent with a robust century in the second as visitors declared their innings at 427/6.
Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj doubled it up with the ball and left England batters in a state of bother.
Zak Crawley's dismissal for a duck, caught at backward point off Mohammed Siraj, marked England's seventh duck in the match. Following this, Ben Duckett, after a quick start that included five boundaries and a score of 25 off 15 balls, inside-edged an Akash Deep delivery onto his stumps. Deep, playing in place of the rested Jasprit Bumrah, then delivered an excellent ball from wide of the crease to bowl Joe Root for just 6 runs, leaving England struggling on the fourth evening in Birmingham.
One positive aspect for England is that India used up two of their reviews, leaving Ollie Pope (24 not out) and Harry Brook (15 not out) at the crease to start the final day. Brook had previously shared a significant 303-run partnership with Jamie Smith in the first innings after England were reduced to 84 for 5.
England, under Ben Stokes' captaincy in the "Bazball" era, have only had one draw in 37 Tests – a rain-affected Ashes match against Australia in 2023. Their approach has been to aggressively pursue victories, resulting in several remarkable chases. One such chase occurred in the first Test of this series in Leeds, where they reached 371. Another memorable chase was against India at Edgbaston in 2022, where centuries from Root and Jonny Bairstow secured a victory by reaching 378 with only three wickets down.
However, achieving the mammoth target of 608 runs now appears to be an even greater challenge, surpassing the record Test chase of 418 by the West Indies against Australia in 2003 by 190 runs, and exceeding the highest chase in all first-class cricket by 72 runs. While a draw is not entirely impossible on a pitch still conducive to batting, the early dismissals of Crawley and Duckett, who shared an impressive opening stand in their successful chase in Leeds last month, followed by Root's wicket, were significant blows. India's new-ball bowlers once again found more success than their English counterparts.
The pitch offered little assistance to the England attack, except for a few deliveries keeping low, as India amassed 427 for 6 declared in their second innings. During this innings, captain Shubman Gill (161 off 162) made history by becoming the first player to score 200 and 150 in the same Test, continuing his exceptional form.
It is possible that India might later regret batting on for too long on the fourth day, or perhaps their slow scoring in the afternoon after Rishabh Pant's rapid innings ended. Pant scored a quickfire 65 off 58 balls, which included an aggressive partnership of 110 runs off 103 balls with Gill. Gill's century followed his first-innings score of 269 and 147 in the Headingley Test. His total of 430 runs in this Edgbaston Test is the second-highest ever in a single Test, only surpassed by Graham Gooch's 456 against India in 1990.
Pant's innings was characterized by boundaries and aggressive intent after coming in at No. 5, following the dismissals of Yashasvi Jaiswal (8), Karun Nair (26), and KL Rahul (55). Pant struck a total of 11 boundaries, including three sixes, and had a couple of instances where he lost control of his bat.
Following Pant's dismissal, the scoring rate slowed down significantly until tea. However, after the interval, there was a dramatic shift in tempo, with India scoring 123 runs in just 15 overs before the declaration. This period included Gill reaching his 150, Jadeja scoring his second half-century of the Test, and Nitish Kumar Reddy getting out cheaply.
While the dismissals of Crawley, Duckett, and Root have dented that belief, it hasn't been completely extinguished, although it will require an extraordinary effort for Stokes' team to maintain their 1-0 lead heading into the third Test at Lord's.