What Went Wrong for India After a Record-Breaking Start?

In the 148-year history of the game, it is the first time a team has ended up on the losing side despite scoring five centuries. After 4 days of berserk batting by both teams, the last day is expected to be a balanced fight between bat and ball. As always, England’s openers played in a sizzling manner and won the match by 5 wickets. Now, they will be heading to Birmingham with a lead of 1-0.

Test of character, failed: India’s first big step in transition, and they fall.

After winning the toss, Stokes chose to bowl, and when Ravi asked Gill about that decision, he said we would do the same. Indian openers came to bat and did what was expected; they looked unflustered till the time they batted. Rahul and Jaiswal set the stage for the upcoming batters; the captain and the vice-captain scored centuries alongside Jaiswal.

According to Cricbuzz, India was 430-4, then suddenly, under 41 runs, they lost 7 wickets and repeated the same mistake in the 2nd innings, losing 6 wickets under 31 runs.

In the post-match conference, the Indian coach Gambhir addressed

These things happen. Even proper batters fail. Hopefully they’ll learn, and hopefully we’ll get better performances from our tail. And that is not the only reason we lost the Test Match.

On the contrary, with the last line, tail-enders not scoring cannot be the sole reason, but it is one of the major reasons for a team to lose the match. If you look at England’s lower order, they scored more than 100 runs combined in both innings. Our lower order didn’t stay at the crease for long enough to contribute something; they all just threw their wickets and surrendered in front of England’s average bowling line-up.

The carry job is still there in Indian cricket.

Decades passed, the team went through several transitions, and great players came and went, but one thing remains the same throughout the history of Indian Cricket is one man carrying the team. In the 90s and 2000s, Sachin did that, in the 2010s, Kohli was the man, and currently, Bumrah is doing that thankless job. Even after the series losses in the Test format, the coaching team does not appear to learn from their errors.

If Bumrah gets wickets, you are happy and blessed that he represents the Indian team, and when he does not get any, you wonder, why do we have one Bumrah? Here in this game, there was never a moment when you could say that there was enough backup for him. Fielders dropped catches and could not stop the boundaries, the biggest reason behind India’s defeat. It is true that bowlers win you tournaments and series, but not one. You need a proper bowling unit, where they support each other from both ends.

Historic individual performances, but failed as a team.

This game began with the high note of India as Jaiswal and Rahul provided a good base, played as per the condition, and they did an excellent job in grasping the ball. It aids the future batters to be able to score. The three Indian Test Cricket of the future (Jaiswal, Gill & Pant) began the down pour of centuries.

Jaiswal is also showing his powers and abilities of hitting the centuries in his first tour to the SENA countries. The captain subsequently scored his maiden away test century and shut the pundits up. He scored the perfect 147 runs and thereby he was the 5th Indian captain to make 100 on the first game occasion.

He gripped one end, and played lovely orthodox shots. We cannot call him by the name of Prince without a reason because his batting style and method of scoring runs are quite like Kohli in the white ball. He can actually take his legacy into the white ball, but in the red ball, he has to do justice to his talent, skills, or potential yet. The vice-captain came after the captain and went down in the history by helping himself to two centuries in each innings of the event.

🚨 FIRST TIME IN 148 YEARS 🚨

India becomes the first team in Test cricket history to lose a match after having 5 individual centuries. 🤯

History made… for all the wrong reasons.#ENGvsIND #TestCricket #CricketStats #INDvsENG pic.twitter.com/wVbbSTmidU

— Choudhary kapil (@Kapilmalik3011) June 24, 2025

He became the 7th Indian to do so and the only 2nd WK batter in the history of the game to achieve this feat. His first-inning century was unlike his style, but he made sure to score the 2nd one in a Pant-astic manner. He was constantly talking to himself and trying not to play a big shot, and because of this, India went from 92-3 to 364. These knocks perfectly reflect his maturity, game awareness, and hunger. If someone asks why he’ll be one of the greatest to play this format, show them these centuries.

Now, the two most senior players of the team, Jasprit Bumrah and KL Rahul, both proved that experience matters the most in away tours. KL Rahul looked beautiful while batting in the first innings, but a loose shot and he had to go back. But he made a stronger comeback in the 2nd inning. Jaiswal was gone, Gill was gone, and Rahul stood there and ran.

He made a partnership with Sai, Pant, and Karun and communicated with them in three different languages. His innings was as crucial as Pant’s; they did provide a stage for lower-order batters, but they did nothing.

When One Man Carries a Nation’s Bowling Hopes

The last and the backbone of Indian Cricket Team is Jasprit Bumrah and what to say you just can not stop talking about him. He is a mystery; you cannot merely explain what he had accomplished and what had been the modus operandi, but you exactly feel that whatever that he had accomplished is not more but a wonderful thing. It happened like when Bumrah got wickets in the first innings, India was in a position where they can bowled out England out but when he did not do a terrific job in the second innings, the bowling line failed.

The opposite foresight was able to predict which ball will come. This bowling attack does not see the presence of Bumrah and this fact is not helping this bowling team to give enough confidence that it will be able to win at least one of the games in this series.

As they have lost the last match, India would need to restructure their playing eleven which includes some important decisions and focus on fielding to win the next match. This will also be the greatest challenge to this budding Indian team; transitioning out of an era is not an easy task. But the decision of the side and certain attitude of the coaching staff could help to remove at least some thorns on the way.