India secured a resounding victory against England by five wickets in the thrilling fifth Test match held in Ranchi. With this win, India clinched the five-match Test series 3-1. The match witnessed a remarkable partnership between Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel, who played pivotal roles in chasing down the target of 192 runs.
The absence of key players like Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, along with Jasprit Bumrah's rest and Mohammed Shami's unavailability, posed significant challenges for the Indian team. However, emerging talents such as Dhruv Jurel and Yashasvi Jaiswal rose to the occasion, showing their batting skills. Akash Deep also made notable contributions with the ball.
Jurel, the Player of the Match, played a pivotal role with a stellar 90 in the first innings and a match-winning contribution in the second. In a post-match interaction, Rohit Sharma, captain of the Indian team, praised the youngsters, emphasizing their readiness for the big stage and lauding their encouraging responses to challenges.
"It clearly tells me that they want to be here, all the hard grind, in local and domestic cricket. It's a big challenge to play Test cricket, but the response has been quite encouraging. The only work for Rahul bhai and me is to get the things done. They're very clear at what they want to do," said Rohit.
"Jurel, in his second play, showed a lot of composure and has the shots as well. His 90 in the first innings brought us close to England's total and he showed a lot of calmness and maturity in the 2nd innings. It's always not pleasing to miss key players, but there's nothing we can't do as a group. It wasn't easy for these guys to come and fill their shoes, there was a lot of pressure from outside, not inside, a lot of things were written and spoken about, but performances like this will motivate them to do better in the future," said Rohit.
"It's always not pleasing when you miss key players, but there's nothing we can do as a group. To fill their shoes was not easy, but they responded really well. When you make a mark like that, you hold yourself in a good position for a long career. This will motivate them. We turn up to every Test thinking we want to win, this is a great series, want to turn up in fifth and put our best foot forward. Confident we will put on a good show."
Speaking after the game, Jurel said he tried to play according to the situation, while crediting the tail-enders for crucial partnerships in India’s first innings. Jurel formed a 77-run stand with Kuldeep Yadav, before stitching a 40-run partnership with Akash Deep to help India post 307 runs in their first innings.
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"Whatever the situation demands, I want to do that. In our 1st innings, I thought the more runs I score now, the fewer runs we would have to in our 2nd innings. (First innings) Our wickets were falling, and I was batting with lower-order batters, but we got partnerships with them. So they deserve some credit too. (Anderson, Wood in third Test) Felt good playing against them because I saw them on TV. Focus was on seeing the ball, not the bowler. Gill and I were discussing about making small tasks. To approach the chase in sets of ten runs each."
Shubman Gill, reflecting on the match, acknowledged the pressure situation but lauded Jurel's ability to relieve pressure and adapt to the game's demands.
Shubman Gill has been speaking to Jio said, "We were put under pressure, but got a good start from our openers. Jurel came out and took the pressure off, he saw the situation and played accordingly. They were protecting the boundaries, so it was about not giving maidens and keep picking the singles. He batted beautifully in the first innings and had to have the same mindset. I decided to take lbw out of the equation by using my feet.
"It means the world to us, playing the series with not much batting experience, losing KL after the first Test.. but Rohit Bhai backed us and gave us the confidence to go out and play with freedom."
Meanwhile, Ben Stokes, despite England's defeat, hailed the resilience shown by his team's spinners and expressed pride in their performance.
"It was a great Test match, the scoreboard doesn't give enough credit to the game as a whole, the ebbs and flows. So much credit to our spinners, being exposed to a situation like that at the start of their careers. I couldn't be more proud. That's the way I am as a person, allowing these guys to come into an intimidating situation and treat every ball as an occasion. It's brought out a lot of talent not just for us but for India. I'm a massive Test cricket fan. We've been good in periods, yesterday with the bat was incredibly hard against Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep, close to impossible. We didn't think the pitch would get any better, and we've seen that today,” Ben Stokes said.
"Root, incredible knock, the criticism wasn't very fair, class is permanent etc. And Bashir, what a journey, very proud of him. You come into series and you want to win, but my message has been consistent. It's about the input, we don't worry about output. Everyone gave their all," he said.
