 "England's Jamie Smith shakes India captain Shubman Gill's hand after hitting the winning shot to seal a five-wicket victory for his team at Headingley on Tuesday. AP")
India failed to defend a 370-plus target for the second consecutive time against England in England, suffering a five-wicket defeat in Leeds on Tuesday to concede a 0-1 lead to Ben Stokes’ men.
Ben Duckett led the way with a superb 149 after his knock of 62 in the first innings at the Headingley Cricket Ground. Besides the southpaw, opening partner Zak Crawley (65) and senior batter Joe Root (53 not out) chipped in with half-centuries as England chased down a challenging 371-run target set by Shubman Gill’s men with relative ease.
England thus began the 2025-27 cycle for the ICC World Test Championship on a winning note. Gill, on the other hand, suffered a defeat on debut as Test captain exactly a month after he was named as Rohit Sharma’s successor by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee.
Pietersen, Yuvraj and others react to England’s dramatic victory
Here’s how social media reacted to the result:
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIndia will have a little over a week to try and put the defeat at Headingley behind and work on their shortcomings ahead of the second Test against England, which gets underway on 2 July at Edgbaston in Birmingham.