Author: Boria Majumdar

Boria Majumdar at Edgbaston There are two results possible. A draw and an Indian win. While some might argue why did India not declare earlier, I don’t have a problem with their approach. They made sure that England were given just enough overs tonight for the two premier fast bowlers to have a crack at them and then come back and do it again with a newish ball tomorrow morning. The blows dealt by Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep vindicated this stand. The Dukes will do something till about 30 overs or so and England did bowl well today morning…

Boria Majumdar at Edgbaston Someone in the press box reminded me this morning that Shubman Gill had an average of 35 ahead of the series. “Is it true?”, the journalist asked. Was he being cheeky? The answer is that I don’t know. When you think of it, you are indeed surprised. From what we have seen here, the class, hunger, penchant for runs, you tend to think that this is surely someone averaging over 50 in Test cricket. Two shots defined Gill as a batter in this innings. Josh Tongue, post-lunch, tried the short-ball ploy. In no time, India’s captain…

Boria Majumdar, Birmingham Mohammed Siraj is the man of the moment for India. A six-wicket haul and he has set it up for the batters to take control. The question I want to ask is how many of us thought if he was Hindu or Muslim when he was leading the team back to the change room? How many of us even bothered about his religion or caste or other markers of identity? All that mattered was he was the leader of our attack, filling in for the genius called Jasprit Bumrah in the crucial second Test. Needless to say,…

Boria Majumdar It was match day minus two and the Indian players were just about finishing their net session. It was an intense few hours and almost all the bowlers except Jasprit Bumrah had gone flat out. Mohammed Siraj had just finished his stint and was walking back to the change room to get into his batting gear and come and knock a few. That’s when we bumped into each other. It is well known that Siraj and I share a very good rapport. We exchanged normal pleasantries and gave each other a hug. That’s when Siraj started. It was…

Boria Majumdar in Birmingham Shubman Gill’s story is that of perseverance, hard work, unbelievable talent and also sacrifices of a family that moved out of its comfort zone to build a career for their beloved child. At the start of this journey, a small but significant role was played by former India left-arm seamer Karsan Ghavri. Like in the case of Cheteshwar Pujara, his father Arvind had sought Ghavri’s advice on whether to invest time and energy in his son’s career and got a positive feedback. When it came to Shubman, it was completely the opposite, as it was Ghavri…

As India’s innings folded for 587, there was a collective sigh across the ground. Finally, the ordeal was over for England after 150 overs of toil. The England supporters all felt they could look ahead to two hours of entertainment. The openers would come out and smash the Indian bowling around. Without Jasprit Bumrah, this wasn’t an attack to bother about and it was time to make the most of this batting deck. It started as planned. As Zak Crawley hit Akash Deep for two boundaries in the first over itself, the crowd found voice. This is what they had…

Boria Majumdar in Birmingham He had to wait for three overs and the crowd was getting restless. For two overs Washington Sundar ran a single off the last ball and Shubman Gill was off strike. Thereafter in the third over, Ben Stokes did put the field back on the sixth ball to lure Washington to run another single. The idea was to frustrate Gill. This time Washington wouldn’t do any such thing. He blocked Shoaib Bashir and Gill was on strike. Stokes took nearly a minute to set the field and moved two fielders on the on side to try…

Boria Majumdar in Birmingham I was in the same press box in 2019 and vividly remember England attacking the Indian spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. They were in top shape ahead of Edgbaston and all of a sudden things changed. The game was played in one of the corner pitches which meant the boundary was short on one side and the English batters targeted the Indian spinners. Things were never the same for the duo thereafter. This morning one of our colleagues, someone I have regard for, Arani Basu from the Times of India, comes up to…

Boria Majumdar, Edgbaston It was October 2002, and I was a PhD student at Oxford University, working on the history of Indian cricket, when I got a call from an auctioneer in London. He had helped me with material and sounded very excited on the phone. “Come and see what I have found,” he told me. When I met him the next day, I was in disbelief. I was actually holding in my hand a letter from Douglas Jardine, addressed to Duleepsinhji, which said that he had finally figured out a way to stop Don Bradman, and he wanted to…

Boria Majumdar in Birmingham Wickets were falling at the other end. Rishabh Pant, his vice-captain, had played a reckless shot and given it away. It was a stroke that could have yet again prompted Sunil Gavaskar to say “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” If that wasn’t enough, Nitish Kumar Reddy left an incoming delivery on off stump and was bowled all ends up. At 211-5, England had wrested control. In fact, Shubman Gill looked acutely disappointed when Pant got out, for he knew that India’s chance to seize the initiative might have been lost. Thereafter, he needed to regroup. He played within…