India 587 & 304-4 (Gill 100, Pant 65, Rahul 55) lead England 407 by 484 runs by tea on day four at Edgbaston.
Shubman Gill walked off just before the interval on exactly 100, his second hundred of the match and third in four starts as captain. He and Rishabh Pant added 110 in 103 balls, a passage that felt decisive rather than dramatic. England, a bowler down through workload not injury, recognised the inevitable: a target nudging 500 on a surface still playing true.
“I’m not looking at numbers,” Gill told the host broadcaster. “The idea was to stretch the advantage, then see how many overs we want this evening.” His numbers, nonetheless, keep coming. The 24-year-old’s match aggregate of 369 surpasses Sunil Gavaskar’s India record of 344, set back in 1971. More broadly, 524 runs in only four knocks as captain now has statisticians reaching for Don Bradman’s fabled series tally of 974.
Pant played the more frantic hand. He thumped 65 from 58 deliveries, was dropped at mid-off on 45, and departed trying to launch Shoaib Bashir over long-off. “That’s how Rishabh plays,” explained batting coach Vikram Rathour. “When it works, the run-rate jumps; when it doesn’t, well, you’ve still had the jump.”
Gill remained measured. From 25 off 47 he eased to fifty from 57, mostly through well-controlled pulls off Josh Tongue. The hundred took 130 balls, compiled through calm placement rather than overt risk. He later admitted, “The leg-side boundary felt shorter with that wind; it was worth using.”
At the other end Ravindra Jadeja, promoted to No. 6, offered quiet resistance: 25 from 68, one boundary, little fuss. India’s intent appeared two-fold – add runs, drain England. The session slowed, but the tourists did not mind. Mark Wood’s pace dipped, Jimmy Anderson bowled with guile yet little reward, and the softening ball didn’t help Bashir much beyond Pant’s mis-hit.
Former England opener Alastair Cook, on BBC Test Match Special, put it plainly: “India have batted England out of the match; the only question left is when Gill pulls the pin.”
England will require a world-record chase, 418 by West Indies at Antigua in 2003 the current benchmark. “Records are there to be broken,” Ben Stokes said the previous evening, and he may be obliged to prove the point again. Practically, time and surface look set against him.
Gill still holds the declaration card. With two sessions left after tea – and the forecast fair – it feels a matter of when, not if, India invite England to bat. Whatever the precise moment, the equation will be simple: England need plenty, India need ten.
