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'Jadeja and Washington deserved a century' - Gill on the dramatic end

Stokes said that given the quick turnaround, he didn't want to risk any of his frontline bowlers getting injured

Shashank Kishore
Shashank Kishore
27-Jul-2025 • 2 hrs ago
Ben Stokes sees his offer for a draw to Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar rebuffed, England vs India, 4th Test, Manchester, 5th day, July 27, 2025

Ben Stokes sees his offer for a draw to Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar rebuffed  •  Getty Images

India's decision to bat on and not call off the game at the start of the mandatory final 15 overs was a decision left to Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, India captain Shubman Gill said after India secured a hard-fought draw in Manchester to keep the series alive at 1-2.
Jadeja was unbeaten on 89 and Sundar 80 at the start of the last hour with India on 386 for 4, when Stokes offered to shake hands. India, however, decided to bat on. "It was up to the boys," Gill said when asked whose decision it was to stay on. "I thought they both batted brilliantly, both were in their 90s. We thought they deserved a century there."
The game was called off as soon as both batters brought up their hundreds. This was Jadeja's second in England and Washington's first; the pair put on an unbroken 203-run stand for the fifth wicket to secure a draw.
"Very pleased with the batting effort," Gill said. "The past couple of days, we've been put under a lot of pressure. The way we responded after losing two early wickets, it's never easy but it was a very brave effort."
India head coach Gautam Gambhir agreed with Gill. "If someone is batting on 90 and the other one is batting on 85, wouldn't they deserve a hundred? Would they have walked off if someone from England side would've been batting on 90 or 85? If someone has the opportunity to get his first test hundred, wouldn't you allow him to do it? They weather the storm. It's up to them. If they want to play that way, that's up to them. I've got nothing more to say. I think both those guys deserve a hundred and fortunately they got it in the end."
England captain Ben Stokes, meanwhile, said that given the quick turnaround between the Tests, he did not want to risk his frontline bowlers getting injured as the reason behind offering to shake hands once the last hour began.
"We were willing to take it as far as we possibly could and throw everything at them that we did, but it got to that point where there was obviously only one result left on the table and I wasn't going to be risking any of my frontline bowlers in a situation like that, especially when we've got a quick turnaround," Stokes told the BBC. "The only other person who actually has any bowling workload in them is Harry Brook.
"He does actually work on that kind of stuff, but I did have to say to him, please don't do anything stupid. We've been out in the field for 200-and-whatever overs, we've got a quick turnaround, so just do what needs to be done. I said don't do anything daft: don't pull a side, don't pull a hamstring. We knew what was going on there."
While appreciating Jadeja and Washington's knocks, Stokes said the "10 more runs" the duo wanted to get for their respective centuries wouldn't have changed the fact that they got their team out of a tricky situation.
"The knock that those two (Jadeja and Washington) played was very, very good," he said at the press conference. "The situation that India found themselves in there, with us opening the game slightly, that partnership was massive. You hold your hands up - they played incredibly, incredibly well. And I don't think there would've been too much more satisfaction from walking off a hundred not out, getting your team out of a tricky situation, than walking off at 80, 90 not out. That's what you've done for your team. You know, the 10 more runs or whatever it was ain't gonna change the fact that you've managed to get your team out of a very, very, very tricky situation and almost saved your team from a series defeat before the last game."
India resumed the final day on 174 for 2, still trailing England by 137 runs, with KL Rahul and Gill having got together in the first over on day four with the score reading 0 for 2. Gill said the plan was "about taking the wicket out of the equation."
"Day five wicket, something keeps happening, every ball is an event," he said. "We wanted to play ball by ball, take the game as deep as possible. That's what we spoke about."
On asked about his learnings as a Test captain four games in, Gill said, he'd learned "a lot of things."
"Every match going up until the last session of the last day ... so many learnings," he said. "Each Test match teaches you something different, four matches as a group has also taught a lot. Hopefully, we can draw the series if we win the next match."

Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo