India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill went against an International Cricket Council warning during the final Test against England at The Oval, risking a penalty that could have cost them World Test Championship points.
The final day started with a stark warning. Match referee Jeff Crowe came knocking, telling the Indian camp they were a full six overs behind schedule. The consequences were laid out in black and white: get your act together, or lose four crucial WTC points. And for a team battling at the top of the table, that’s a blow you simply can’t afford to take.
There was a quick meeting in the dressing room. Gill, Gambhir, assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak, and others weighed the options. One proposal was to bring both spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, into the attack. It would speed up the overs, but it also meant bowling to two well-set England batters, Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton.
Gambhir reportedly ended the debate. “I don’t care about the over rate. If we lose four points, so be it. We are playing to win,” he told the room. Gill agreed. The plan stayed with fast bowlers Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj.
It was a gamble. If the quicks couldn’t break through quickly, India might have lost both the match and the points. But Siraj dismissed Smith and Overton in a crucial burst. Even with a late six from Gus Atkinson and a missed run-out by Dhruv Jurel, India kept pushing. Siraj came back to remove Atkinson and seal the match.
That’s how you finish a series! India clawed out a six-run win to tie it all up at 2-2, but the real prize was the huge 28-point boost they got in the World Test Championship. They’re now sitting pretty in third place.
And for England? Just a gut-punch of a day. Losing a heartbreaker like that is one thing, but then getting hit with a two-point penalty for a slow over-rate is just salt in the wound.
The decision has already become another example of Gambhir’s no-compromise approach to coaching. He seems more interested in winning the game in front of him than in managing long-term points scenarios. Sometimes that works, as it did here. Other times, perhaps, it won’t. But in the Oval Test, it was the difference between second-guessing and celebrating.
