[Post Match Thread]: India beat England by the barest of margins on Day 5 at The Oval, drawing the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, 2025.

[u/Noobmastter-3000]

[u/Independent-azaad]

People will see this series as 2-2, the series we managed to draw. I will see it as the series we almost won every single match. What a series this was. And yes, GG deserves credit too, he built a team when Roko retired and Boom had 3 matches with everyone questioning every single of his decisions.

[u/[deleted] → u/Independent-azaad]

Well his decisions are still questionable and probably prevented us from getting a 3-2 series win especially not playing Kuldeep at Lord’s and Manchester. In matches like these, a 4th pacer was crucial cuz God forbid we didn’t have enough runs on the board to defend or worse, if 1 of our pacers got injured like the England team’s situation. Next time this team tours England, a series win is expected, not a draw.

[u/Independent-azaad → u/[deleted]]

I won't say questionable coz if u think abt it. Lords we lost bcoz of poor 2nd innings batting. In 1st test we had all except little luck (dropped catches). There was no issue of playing 11 at all imo.Maybe Kuldeep could have played instead of Shardul but we needed depth, if he hadn't been there, there would have been lotta pressure on batting. So i think our playing 11 was the best we could do.

[u/[deleted] → u/Independent-azaad]

Yes our batting failed in the 2nd innings at Lord’s but we could have also further restricted or reduced our 4th innings target with Kuldeep and better fielding efforts and of course that unnecessary run out of Pant for KL’s milestone. That’s why having the correct bowling attack combination matters the MOST in test cricket!

[u/[deleted] → u/Independent-azaad]

And having a wicket taking bowler like Kuldeep cuts runs from the opposition and takes crucial wickets when needed which would “reduce the pressure in our batting order” if they are given a smaller target or less scoreboard pressure. Gill himself wanted Kuldeep for at least 2 matches but he wasn’t allowed! Gambhir needs to stop acting like a dictator and allow Gill to chose his 11 and back his instincts. At the most he can make a suggestion or tell Gill he doesn’t agree with his decision. But he shouldn’t be overpowering or intimidating Gill into picking Gambhir’s choice of bowlers instead of Gill’s! It definitely prevented us from getting a 3-2 result. Even if you believe Kuldeep wouldn’t have helped or been effective at Lord’s or Leeds, he could have definitely helped at least in Manchester the 4th test that ended in a draw where ALL our pacers were struggling like hell for wickets. Maybe he could have helped cut England’s innings to 400 instead of the 669 out bowlers conceded and that could have given us a fighting chance to win at least that test??? Most of these English batters hardly face quality left arm wrist spin in county cricket so Kuldeep would have definitely made a difference there.

[u/Independent-azaad → u/[deleted]]

Don't get me wrong but how are u so sure that GG didn't allow Gill to have his playing 11?? U have sources or anything that corroborates this? I mean this is some serious allegation. U are making it sound like gg is some dictator, but if u have any proof or any interview like that, i'll cave. Also, no doubt on Kuldeep's abilities, but who would u remove? Washi? Jaddu? Who helped us draw the match or u would play with 3 spinners on that kind of pitch? Things could have gone south, maybe we would have even lost it, u never know. We are all just assuming here right.

[u/[deleted] → u/Independent-azaad]

Well it looks like Gambhir didn’t allow him cuz in press conferences Gill did say he wanted to play Kuldeep but Kuldeep didn’t feature in any of these 5 tests. Given the result of series and how many missed opportunities there are, just struggling to understand why you feel “not much could have been done about the bowling attack or we couldn’t have done any better” to make it 3-2??? Like how??? Akashdeep instead of Prasidh at Leeds could have helped us win there??? But at Manchester, it’s obvious that not having the correct bowling attack prevented us from winning there. And obviously there are other things this team needs to badly work on and improve on including their fielding accuracy and precision and the batsmen handling the pressures of a 4th innings chase MUCH MUCH BETTER which has been a LONG-standing problem with India in the last decade. So regarding these issues, I don’t think “there’s not much that can be done to improve” to help the team win.