Leeds: Opener Ben Duckett hit the most defining century of his career, exposing an out-of-depth Indian attack as England comfortably chased down a tricky target of 371 to win the opening Test by five wickets after an intriguing five days of play here on Tuesday.
Duckett’s 149 off 170 balls with 21 fours and an audacious reverse-swept six off Ravindra Jadeja, along with Zak Crawley’s 65 in an opening stand of 188, followed by Joe Root’s composed 53 and Jamie Smith’s cheeky 44 made the chase look much easier than it actually was.
Having chased down 378 at Birmingham courtesy Jonny Bairstow in 2022, England once again did the same with elan on Tuesday, leaving India head coach Gautam Gambhir with an even bigger frown on his face. England lead the five-match series 1-0.
It will be difficult to recall when was the last time that India had five centurions in a single Test and yet lost a game so comprehensively.
Shoddy fielding effort and no support for the peerless Jasprit Bumrah made matters worse for India. Indian bowlers in second innings alone conceded 44 boundaries and three sixes. Add to that the 54 boundaries and five sixes in the first innings. There will certainly be bowling changes in the next Test but whether that will result in 20 wickets is a million dollar question.
In the final session, Ravindra Jadeja, who enjoys a favourable match-up against Ben Stokes, got the important breakthrough with the England skipper trying to reverse-sweep from the rough and his opposite number Shubman Gill taking an easy catch.
With 69 runs to get, Root brought his 150-plus Test experience to play, guiding a young Smith through and through during the unbroken sixth wicket stand that sealed the deal for England.
While this was one of India’s worst fielding efforts with Yashasvi Jaiswal alone dropping four catches, skipper Gill’s relative inexperience in strategizing and taking on-your-feet decisions also became visitor’s undoing. At one point, it seemed the team’s most experienced batter KL Rahul was captaining the side, and Gambhir’s record as a coach in traditional format got a tad worse.
In Gambhir’s coaching, India have now lost seven Tests out of the 11 that he has been in charge so far. The number of defeats could well go into double digits, considering the only potent match-winning bowler Bumrah won’t play two of the remaining four games.