Gill: India were 'pretty confident' of levelling the series on final morning

India captain Shubman Gill has said his team was "pretty confident" of taking the remaining four wickets on the final morning at The Oval to level the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy.

Late rain on day four dragged the game into the fifth day, leaving England needing 35 runs and India four wickets. Mohammed Siraj picked up three of the four wickets to seal a stunning win for the visitors.

"Yeah, we were pretty confident," Gill said at the post-match presentation. "Even yesterday we knew that they [England] are a little bit under pressure. We just wanted to make sure that they're feeling the pressure throughout. Pressure makes everyone do things that they don't want to, and we just wanted to make sure that they're feeling the pressure throughout the 37 runs that they scored.

"I think the way both the teams played in the entire series, every day coming on day four, day five, and never really knowing which team is going to win… it shows that both the teams came up with their A game and very happy to get on the over the line in this one."

Gill had to make some tough decisions as captain amid a dramatic finish, including deciding against taking the second new ball, and he credited Siraj and Prasidh Krishna for making his job easier. The two fast bowlers shared nine of the ten wickets in the final innings.

"When you have got bowlers like Siraj and Prasidh bowling their spells, captaincy seems pretty easy," Gill said. "The ball is doing all sorts [on the final day] and they're making the ball talk. Yes, there was a little bit of pressure on us, but I think the way we responded this morning with them coming through with this spell was just magnificent for us."

Having been left heartbroken after he was the last man dismissed in the Lord's Test last month, Siraj finished the game this time with the ball at The Oval on Monday, when his pinpoint yorker uprooted Gus Atkinson's off stump. Siraj put in a big shift, with his 30.1 overs in the fourth innings bringing him five wickets.

"Yes, definitely, he's a captain's dream", Gill said of Siraj. "Coming in five Test matches, every ball, every spell that he bowled gave his all out, and every captain, every team wants a player like him. We are very fortunate to have him in our team."

While Siraj won the Player of the Match award, Gill was chosen as India's Player of the Series by the opposition coach Brendon McCullum for his chart-topping 754 runs in ten innings at an average of 75.40. Gill's series aggregate is the second highest for a captain behind Don Bradman's 810 against England in the 1936-37 Ashes. No other batter has scored more runs in a series between England and India, going past Graham Gooch's 752 runs in 1990.

"Feels very rewarding," Gill said. "I worked pretty hard before the start of the series. There were certain things that I wanted to work on as a batsman, and it was my goal to be able to be the best batter of the series. And to be able to accomplish that goal feels very satisfying and very rewarding.

"I think once you are sorted mentally, you would be in a good space. But you're only sorted mentally when you're feeling technically correct. So, I think they're both kind of correlated. If you feel like you're getting in good positions, you're always mentally more stable."