India completed their comeback beating England in the 4th Test match by an innings and 25 runs, after losing the first match of the series. Though it looked like England were making a strong recovery from their low first innings total of 205, reducing India to 146-6.
The 23- year old Rishabh Pant partnered with Washington Sundar to ensure India could manage to post a lead of 160 runs. Which the visitors were not able to overcome, crumbling before the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, ended up on the losing side once again. With the commanding victory, Team India has ensured their prestigious spot at the ICC World Test Championship Finale.
The 3-1 series win helps India top the ICC World Test Championship Table posting a win percentage of 72.2 percentage points. The WTC final is scheduled to take place between the 18th of June and 22, at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in England.
25
Virat Kohli and Co. managed to bowl out the English opposition 8 times, 25 of the dismissals accounted for Leg Before Wicket for the Indians. This stands to be the highest number of LBW wickets in a series for the Men in Blue. The previous highest being 24 dismissals against the Australians in 1979-80 and the English in 2016-17.
104
With the Indian opener- Shubhman Gill being dismissed for a duck on the third ball of the Indian innings. The 38-year old veteran James Anderson has equaled the record of Australian legend Glenn McGrath of dismissing the batsmen without scoring on a staggering 104 occasions. With the English pacer being the only active player between the two, he will be trying to one-up the Australian retiree in the coming matches.
2
Going through a rare blip in form, This was the second time Indian skipper Virat Kohli was dismissed for a duck second time in the same series. With this being his 8th duck as Indian captain, he has equaled the unwanted record of his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the unfortunate record of most number of ducks as Indian skipper.
75
Over the course of the four matches in the series, the visitors had a total of 75 partnerships that were not able to establish a half-century stand. With only 4 partnerships crossing the count of 50. The best partnership being between Joe Root and Dominic Sibley for a stand of 200 runs, and the last high-scoring English partnership was in the very same innings between the English skipper and Ollie Pope, who put on 86 runs for the fifth wicket.
3
This time around the Indian Wicket-keeper Batsman Rishabh Pant ensured he got to the magical three figures and it was with his signature slog- sweep. The 23-year old is now joint-second with Wriddiman Saha, with both the players having three centuries under their belt. Former Indian skipper- Mahendra Singh Dhoni tops the list with 6 centuries.
27
Since making his debut, Indian spinner Axar Patel has claimed a total of 27 wickets which stands to be the most wickets taken by an Indian bowler after three Tests. The second best being Narendra Hirwani followed by Ravichandran Ashwin with 19 wickets. The all-rounder also holds the record for the most number of wickets in a three-match debut series.
6
This is the 6th time the Indian cricket team has won a series after going down 0-1 in the series. Beginning with the series against England in 1972/73 winning the 5 match series 2-1 and repeating the trick three times against the Australians out of the six comeback series victories
2002
Creating a bunch of records in his debut series, Axar Patel has become the first spinner to dismiss both openers of the opposition team inside the first ten overs of an innings in the last 18 years.
900
James Anderson became the third pacer to claim 900 International wickets. He achieved the feat by dismissing Indian vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane after he bucketed the ball to the slip. Australia’s Glenn McGrath (949) and Pakistan spearhead Wasim Akram (916) are the only other pacers to have achieved this feat. The Highest among the bowlers stand to be Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan with 1347, followed by Shane Warne of Australia with 1001 and Indian maestro Anil Kumble has 956 International wickets to his name.
13
With their latest series victory, India has recorded their 13th consecutive series win at home. India’s unbeaten streak began with a 4-0 victory in the Border Gavaskar series in 2012/13. The second- best being 10 consecutive series wins by Australia.
1095
Leading to the World Test Championship Final, Marnus Labuschagne tops the most run scorer charts with 1675 runs across 23 innings. As far as the Indian camp is considered, Ajinkya Rahane leads the race with 1095 from 28 innings.
67
Ashwin has claimed 67 wickets in the ICC Test World Championship from 13 matches so far. He stands to be the Indian with the most wickets. The 34-year old is three wickets away from joining the leader, Australian pacer- Pat Cummins, who has 70 wickets to his name. Followed by Cummins is the English spearhead Stuart Board with 69 wickets. Can the quick-witted off-spinner get to the top of the list?
15
There were a total of 15 ducks recorded in this Test series and stands joint with The Ashes 1904/05 for the most ducks in a series. The first on this list is occupied by South Africa and England, back in 1955. Though this is the only series among the three to feature four matches, others being a five-match affair.
3
With the batsmen finding it hard to get into the groove this series, the responsibility often fell on the lower order to bail them out. The second innings of the Indian team saw two dominating 100-runs partnerships, both coming in the 7th and 8th wicket. There are only two other occasions where the teams have managed this feat.
1
English all-rounder Dan Lawerence who was recalled to the English side for the 4th Test match, became the only English batsman to score a second-innings fifty in the series. The next best is Moeen Ali, who scored 43 runs during the second Test match of the series.
8
Ravichandran Ashwin won the Man of the Series award, also claiming his 30th 5-wicket haul in a Test match, earning him his 8th Man of the Series award. It is the most number of Man of the series awards by an Indian and third-highest overall. Sri Lankan legend Muralitharan holds the most number of Man of the series awards with 11 followed by South African Jacques Kallis, who has been in the limelight on 9 different occasions.
With an enthralling Test series drawing to a close, India has made its way to the finals of the inaugural ICC World Test Championships. With more cricket still to be played to find out the ultimate winner of the Test championship. Let us know which interesting stat stood out for you.
