India entered the second Test without Jasprit Bumrah and instead relied on Bengal’s Akash Deep, who also opened the bowling attack after the side scored 587 while batting first. Choosing the novice pacer did not hurt at all, and in fact, it provided a lot of joy quite early in his spell, as the young player got Ben Duckett out for a five-ball duck in just the second over he bowled.
At third slip, Duckett’s somewhat heavy outside edge went right into Indian captain Shubman Gill’s hands. As if that weren’t enough, Ollie Pope was dismissed by Akash Deep on the very next ball after he was caught in yet another outside edge. However, KL Rahul made a quick grab at the second slip this time. Thanks to Akash Deep’s superb deliveries, England quickly went from being wicketless to being two down.
Watch a video of both wickets here:
This is not easy for a bowler to take wicket of two Batsmen two have scored century in last game.
Akash Deep with new ball got them out on duck in two consecutive balls. pic.twitter.com/nONJ9MJnne
— cricFusion Aashi (@cricket_x_Ashi) July 4, 2025
A few balls later, Mohammed Siraj, the most experienced pacer in the lineup, joined the fray by sending Zak Crawley packing, who scored 19 runs as England were left reeling at 25 for the loss of three wickets. At the crease right now are veteran hitter Joe Root and in-form Harry Brook. From here, the English team will try to rebuild and cruise in the direction of the huge track.
Speaking about India’s first innings, captain Gill stole the show with a magnificent double century that smashed multiple records. The Fazilka-born player’s 269 runs off 387 balls earned him a place in cricket history on several occasions. He was only the third player overall to reach a double hundred in England and the first Indian skipper to do it on English soil.
This was the highest score ever made by an Indian in England, and Gill joined the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar in hitting a double ton.
