By Trisha Ghosal
It’s bright and sunny in Leeds; the kind of crisp English summer day that feels like a quiet nod from the weather gods, as if they too are ready for Test cricket. Not a drop of rain, not a breeze too strong. Just stillness, sky, and a sense of something about to begin.
The five-Test series between India and England is one of the sport’s grandest stages. For fans back home, it’s already loud. WhatsApp groups are buzzing, debates erupting, predictions flying. But here in Leeds, it’s calm. Almost meditative. It doesn’t feel like a city on the brink of a high-voltage Test match. And yet, beneath that quiet is a history that knows how to roar.
This town has seen it all. Tucked in West Yorkshire, Leeds once powered the Industrial Revolution with its mills and factories. Today, it blends old stone buildings and Victorian arcades with buzzing student cafes and street music. It’s not the London you read about or the Manchester you chant for. It’s humbler, but prouder. More intimate. The kind of town where cricket isn’t a spectacle; it’s a rhythm.
I haven’t visited the stadium yet. Headingley remains, for now, a name on my itinerary. But it’s a name that already carries weight. One of my favourite matches growing up was the 2002 Headingley Test where Ganguly’s men didn’t just win, they made a statement. That memory lives vivid, like a bookmark in time. And now, two decades on, I’m in the same town to cover another potential chapter in Indian cricket.
This series marks the beginning of India’s new World Test Championship cycle. More than that, it might just be the start of the Shubman Gill era — graceful, composed, and full of promise. There’s a quiet shift in the air. A team slightly younger, a future slightly clearer, and a narrative waiting to unfold.
Even the immigration officer at Birmingham airport felt it. “So you think India will win?” she asked, almost teasingly, when I said I was here to cover the series. “Yes,” I smiled. “Ah, don’t think so,” she shrugged. And there it was — the first ball of the series, bowled not on grass, but in conversation.
Leeds hasn’t revealed itself to me yet. But I can feel it watching, waiting. And I know when the cricket starts, the town will speak too.
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