Follow UsEngland captain Ben Stokes gave up on winning the fourth Test of the five-match series at Manchester on July 27 (Sunday), which was also the fifth day of the game. He tried shaking hands with the Indian batters Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja at the end of the 138th over of the Indian innings.
By then, the pair had added 164 for the fifth wicket and were in their individual 80s, eyeing a hundred each as a personal milestone.
It was obvious that they would refuse a handshake, and they did exactly that, racking up 41 runs in the next five overs and reaching their centuries. It was a maiden Test century for Sundar, while Jadeja brought up his fifth ton, his second in England and third overall against England.
Indian skipper Shubman Gill, in the post-match presentation ceremony, explained why the Indian batters denied the English captain the handshake to end the match in a draw after the 138th over.
“We thought they batted brilliantly, they were in their 90s (Jadeja was on 89 and Sundar on 80), we thought they deserved a century there,” Gill said.
The Indian skipper also talked about the team’s strategy on Day 5 at the Manchester wicket. He said, “Day 5 wicket, something is happening, every ball is kind of an event. [We] wanted to take it ball by ball and take the game as deep as possible, which is what we spoke about.”
Talking about the learnings from the clash, Gill said, “Each Test match teaches you something different. It has taught us a lot as a group. Hopefully we can win the next match and draw the series.”
India can do nothing else but win the game to eke out something from the tour. Even a 2-2 draw on his first tour of England would be a great achievement by Gill. He kept everybody guessing about the Jasprit Bumrah question for the last Test at the Oval.
Bumrah was supposed to play just three Tests on the tour, and all three of them are done. It would thus be interesting to read between Gill’s comments about Bumrah’s availability for the Oval. Gill said, “[We] will have to wait and see.”