Shubman Gill scored a century in the first innings of the Headingley Test. The England cricket team defeated India by five wickets in the first Test of the five-match series at Headingley, Leeds. In a high-scoring match, the hosts comfortably chased down a massive target of 371 runs in their second innings.
Ben Duckett played a brilliant innings of 149, while Zak Crawley (64) and Joe Root (53* not out) also contributed fifties to guide England to an easy win on the fifth day. Duckett was awarded Player of the Match for his outstanding performance.
Shubman Gill: The Indian bowlers struggled to contain the English batsmen on day five. Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur took two wickets each, and Ravindra Jadeja claimed one. However, an opening partnership of 188 runs between Duckett and Crawley laid a strong foundation for England’s victory.
Shubman Gill on India’s Loss at Headingley: “Our Lower-Order Didn’t Contribute Enough”
After India’s defeat in the Headingley Test, captain Shubman Gill reflected on the team’s performance, highlighting that the lower-order batsmen didn’t add enough runs. Despite this, he expressed pride in his teammates’ efforts.
“I think it was a fantastic Test match. We had opportunities, but we dropped catches and our lower-order didn’t deliver as expected. Still, I’m proud of the team and overall it was a solid effort. Yesterday, we were planning to declare around 430 runs, but unfortunately, we couldn’t score enough towards the end, which made things difficult. It just didn’t go our way in this game,” Shubman Gill said during the post-match presentation.
Dropped catches proved to be a major factor in India’s defeat. Gill acknowledged this issue and emphasized the team’s intent to improve their fielding in future matches.
“We discussed this, and things unfolded very quickly. It’s definitely something we need to fix in the upcoming games. Chances don’t come easily on wickets like these. We have a young team that is still learning, and hopefully, we can get better in this area,” the Indian captain added.
Regarding the match, England’s skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and chose to bowl first. India responded strongly, posting a huge first innings total of 471, thanks to centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, and Rishabh Pant.
England nearly matched this with 465 runs in their first innings, highlighted by a century from Ollie Pope (106) and a 99-run knock from Harry Brook. In India’s second innings, they scored 364 runs, setting England a challenging target of 371.
England now leads the five-match Test series 1-0. The two teams will meet next at Edgbaston, Birmingham for the second Test starting July 2.
