India's opening act in England met a heartbreaking loss in Leeds as Shubman Gill-led and Co. squandered the position of advantage they had for most of the match with a late English charge at Headingley. Despite putting 471 and 364 on the board, with five individual centuries, the visitors failed to defend 370 in the final innings in good batting conditions on Day 5, with the hosts romping home after suffering a few jitters.
Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and twin centuries from Rishabh Pant laid a great effort with the bat; however, collapses in the latter stages meant the visitors were short of what they could have got in batting-friendly conditions.
With the ball, Jasprit Bumrah was finding less support from the other end, and while he bowled well in the second innings too, he could not get a wicket to his name. The dropped chances on the field didn't help either, with the visitors leaking way too many runs through those missed chances.
The caravan now moves South to Birmingham for the second Test with India having a task cut to level the series. Firstly, due to reports circulating, Bumrah is likely to rest from the second Test, secondly, due to the batting department going to another litmus test and third, India's poor record at Edgbaston.
India look to avoid equaling unwanted record
India have played eight Test matches at Edgbaston so far, starting from their first appearance at the venue in 1967 under Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi to the rescheduled Test of 2022 under Bumrah.
No Indian team has been able to crack the Birmingham venue in the eight attempts till now, with seven defeats and a lone draw. The last time an Indian team played a Test here was in 2022, the rescheduled Test of the five-match series that was halted due to Covid in 2021.
The Indian team had lost that game after the Three Lions chased down 378, the highest score against India in Test cricket, on the back of centuries from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow under the Bazball era. They had come close to winning one on their trip in 2018 when the visitors were chasing 194, but fell short by 31 runs.
The only draw came in 1986 when England had handed a challenging total of 236 on the final day and threatened to take the game, before an unbeaten 69-run stand between Mohammad Azharuddin and Kiran More.
Meanwhile, if India don't get a win on their ninth attempt at the venue, they will equal their record for being winless for the most matches at a venue in Test cricket across the world.
The current streak of being winless stands at nine, in Barbados and Manchester, and one more such result would bring this venue's result to nine too.
Most matches played by India at a venue and still being winless:
1 - Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados - 9 matches: 7 losses, 2 draws
2 - Old Trafford, Manchester - 9 matches: 4 losses, 5 draws
3 - Edgbaston, Birmingham - 8 matches: 7 losses, 1 draw
4 - Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore - 7 matches: 2 losses, 5 draws
5 - Bourda, Georgetown, Guyana - 6 matches: 0 losses, 6 draws
