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The Indian Cricket Team’s improbable comeback against England, where they picked up 7/65 towards the end of the fourth innings, has raised eyebrows from some naysayers around the cricket community who find it hard to believe that a team could pull off such a comeback. In a series where multiple batting records were broken, it was Siraj who spearheaded the Indian team to a famous victory on the back of his impressive bowling. One of the biggest detractors who don’t want to give the young Indian side their due credit is using ball tampering as an excuse. With conditions on Day 4 looking optimal for batting, ever since Harry Brook’s wicket, the old Dukes ball started to zip around. And on Day 5, in the morning, the Dukes' ball under overcast conditions and lights on was doing all sorts of things, and hooping around, making it treacherous conditions for batting.
This aided India’s charge on Day 5 when they needed to pick four wickets and had just 35 runs in the bag to defend. But Mohammed Siraj who was one of the top performers in the series along with Prasidh Krishna exploited the favourable conditions beautifully and managed to knock over England to tie the series. But according to former Pakistan pacer Shabbir Ahmed, there is no chance that an 80-over-old ball could shape that much. Shabbir Ahmed took to X (formerly Twitter) and accused Shubman Gill and his side that they must have used Vaseline to keep the shine on the ball intact even after 80 overs. Ahmed further urged the umpires to send the ball to the lab for examination in hopes of exposing India.
“I think India used Vaseline. After 80 + over Ball still shine like new, Umpire should send this ball to lab for examine,” wrote Shabbir Ahmed on X.
It is a big accusation being laid by Shabbir Ahmed, but the truth remains that there is no evidence supporting this accusation, as none of the opposition players, umpires, and even the broadcasters cast a shadow of doubt over whether India tampered with the ball or not. It is more likely that Shabbir Ahmed is also one of those detractors who find it hard that India pulled off something so miraculous that he doesn’t want to give the side credit and hence wants to stir up controversy and conspiracy where there is no room for one.
Even England players, in Harry Brook, when asked about the movement on Day 5, cited it due to overcast conditions and having to play under the lights, and not to some potential ball tampering incident. Former Indian cricketer and broadcaster with Sky Sports, Dinesh Karthik, revealed in his post-match review that while talking to Indian bowlers, they revealed that there was good movement on Day 4 as well, but Joe Root and Harry Brook’s batting made it look as if there was no movement or the bowling was tougher.
In a series that was dominated by the bat and pitches that were flat and catered to the batters, certainly the pitch at the Oval in the fifth Test was most suitable for bowlers from Day 1 to Day 5. There was a sufficient amount of grass cover on the pitch, offering equal chances to both batters and bowlers. India, in the end, was able to exploit the conditions to their advantage and able to win the Test.
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Post the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, there were a lot of question marks looming over the young and inexperienced Indian Test side. With Shubman Gill named as the new red-ball skipper ahead of the series, a lot of critics wrote off India even before the first Test of the series.
The expectation was that without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the Indian Test side would be hammered and end up losing the series 4-1, 5-0, or 4-0. To make matters worse for the Indian side, their most important player and bowler in the Test side, Jasprit Bumrah, was also coming back from a back injury, which meant that he wasn’t fit to play in all five of the Test matches.
Jasprit Bumrah was only available for three of the five Test matches in England. But contrary to all the expectations, India competed excellently in the series, with each of the five Test matches going down to the fifth day. India lost the first Test at Headingley, Leeds, failing to defend 373 runs with Jasprit Bumrah in the line-up. However, in the second Test India bounced back to level the series 1-1, winning by 336 runs and led excellently by Shubman Gill’s 269-run knock.
In the third Test, India failed to chase a target of 193 as they went down 2-1 at Lord’s and at Old Trafford, they stared at an innings defeat and losing the series in the fourth Test itself before gutsy tons by Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, and Washington Sundar guided India to a draw. And in the fifth and final Test at the Oval, once again without Jasprit Bumrah, India pulled off a rabbit out of the hat to script the narrowest win in their Test history of six runs.
With the series tied at 2-2, something which very few people expected from the young Indian side two months ago, Shubman Gill and his team have made a statement at the start of the 2025-2027 World Test Championship cycle and will be looking to shut up even more critics like Shabbir Ahmed in the future.
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