India collapsed from 430/3 in the first innings to 471, losing seven wickets for 41 runs and in the second, they crumbled to 364 all-out from 333/4, losing six wickets for 31 runs
India skipper Shubman Gill admitted the collapse of the lower order in both the innings did prove expensive for them during the five wicket loss to England in the first Test on Tuesday (June 24). Despite vice-captain Rishabh Pant scoring centuries in each innings of the opening Tests and other key batters in openers KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Gill himself hitting their respective tons, India failed to get to big totals in both the innings and also dropped crucial catches. This is the first time in history of Indian cricket that a team lost a Test after five individual hundreds being scored by its batters.
India lost from 430/3 in the first innings to 471 with seven wickets for 41 runs and in the second, they fell to 364 all-out from 333/4, losing six wickets for 31 runs.
"A brilliant Test match," said Gill after the loss. "We had chances in the match, a few dropped catches, and the lower order didn't contribute as it would have been." Reflecting on the second innings, where India collapsed from 333/4 to 364 all out, Gill revealed that India were initially planning a declaration. “Yesterday we were thinking to give them around 400-430 to chase and declare, but our lower order added around 20-25 runs, which is never a good sign,” he said. “Even today, I thought after their brilliant opening partnership, we did have our chances but just didn't go our way.”
Sharing his thought on what he might have done differently as captain, Gill said, “The first session we bowled, we were quite spot on. But it's quite hard to stop the runs once the ball gets old, and you have to keep picking wickets to stay in the game. Unfortunately, some catches didn't find the fielders and didn't go our way, but I think they batted really well. After the ball got old, they took their chances, and their opening partnership took the game away from us.”
Jasprit Bumrah’s performance also drew interest, especially after he went wicketless in the second innings. Gill confirmed the team would assess his workload before the second Test. “It's definitely more game by game. There's a good break after this Test match, so once we are close to the match, we'll see.”