Gill, Deep, Siraj script historic Edgbaston win

Shubman Gill celebrates after scoring a 161 in the second innings at Edgbaston.
With a 269 in the first innings, he became the only batter in Test history to score
a double hundred and a 150+ in the same match. -- Reuters

India made up at Edgbaston, Birmingham, for what they missed at Leeds.

By defeating England by a huge margin of 336 India registered their first ever victory last night at this ground, where they had, since 1967, played eight Tests (excluding this one) and lost all except one which ended in a draw.

Rain was a threat. In fact yesterday morning's play was suspended. Luckily for India, skies cleared by afternoon.

Before this Test started on July 2, there were worries about the composition of the team: will India be able to bowl out England twice without their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah?

But, they did. 

In England's first innings, Mohmmed Siraj scalped six and Akash Deep the remaining four.

In the second innings, Akash Deep took six and the remaing four were shared by Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ravinder Jadeja and Washington Sundar.

Gill's memorable Test

Shubman Gill, to use a cliche, played a captain's knock in both innings, scoring 269 in the first and 161 in the second. 

His aggregate of 430 runs is the second-highest by any batter in a single Test, only behind Graham Gooch’s 456.

Gill became the first player in Test history to score a double century and a 150+ in the same match.

He also set the record for the highest score by an Indian captain in England.

Batters clicked this time

For India, the main problem in the first Test was that barring one or two, all the other batters just flopped. That wasn't the case here.

Not just Shubman Gill, others too clicked.  

In the first innings, Ravindra Jadeja scored 89, Yashasvi Jaiswal 87, Washington Sundar 42, and Karun Nair 31.

In the second innings, Ravindra Jadeja scored 69, Rishabh Pant 85, K L Rahul 55 and Yashasvi Jaiswal 28.

This helped India post good totals in both innings -- 587 and 427/6 declared.

Bazball tactic fails

When England chased down successfully 371 at Leeds, it was said to be a vindication of their Bazball tactic. 

"Bazball" refers to the aggressive, risky style of cricket adopted by the England Test team under the guidance of coach Brendon McCullum (whose nickname is "Baz"). The idea is to look for a win rather than for a draw.

But that just didn't work here. One, because of the pressure of the huge score India had mounted. And two, in both innings, Indian bowlers seemed to extract a better response from the surface.

England's first innings (407) was a pathetic show; very much like how India fared in the Leeds Test. Barring Harry Brook (158) and Jamie Smith (184), none contributed anything. The highest individual score after these two was 22 by Joe Root!

In England's second innings, they had a victory target of 608 with more than a day's play remining. It was definitely a steep climb, and considering they were already one up in the series, the traditional approach would have been to stay around to end the match in a draw rather than lose the Test.

But this time around, Indian bowling was definitely better than at Leeds, and English wickets began to tumble at regular intervals. They were all out for 271, losing by 336 runs, the second biggest margin of defeat against India.

New era

The victory is clearly a morale-boosting one for India. The five-Test series has now been levelled. 

India's new Test captain, Shubman Gill, is not only doing well individually with the bat, but also seems to be steering team in the right direction.

The third Test

The next match in the five-Test series begins on Thursday, 10 July, at Lord's.  

Movie: Sitaare Zameen Par

A few days ago, I went for a movie. It must be at least two years since I last went out for a film. 

It was for Aamir Khan’s Sitaare Zameen Par (Stars on Earth).

Though this film is similar to his own 2007 film Taare Zameen Par (Stars on Earth), the story is very different. This is an official remake of 2018 Spanish movie Champions.

The central theme is: differently abled people are no less intelligent or less smart than any one of us. In fact, the so-called “normal” people have a lot to learn from the so-called “disabled”.

Gulshan, played by Aamir Khan, is a school basketball coach. He is very good at his game but not as a person. He is full of ego, short-tempered, doesn't know how to get on with people, etc.

He gets into trouble during a tournament and the case reaches the court which asks him to do community service in lieu of a jail term. 

His job: train a basketball team of young adults who are intellectually challenged.

At first, he doesn’t take it seriously, but slowly, the team changes his perspective. 

And he is reformed.

In the end at one point he says: "I am not their coach, they are my coach."

One message from the film was "Everyone has their own kind of normal".

This is a sensitive topic, and Aamir Khan has handled it very well. 

Though there a fair amount of comedy thrown in, characters' personalities are shown with the seriousness and respect they deserve. They are at no point shown as helpless. 

In real life too

It's not the theme alone that makes this movie purposeful, it's also the fact that many of the actors live with disabilities in real life. 

For example, Gopi Krishnan Varma, who plays the role of 'Guddu', has Down Syndrome. He has previously acted in a Malayalam movie, Thirike (2021). 

So too, is Simran Mangeshkar who plays the role of 'Golu'.

Samvit Desai, who is 'Kareem' in the movie, is neurodivergent. Rishi Sahani and Ayush Bansali too are intellectually challenged.

Genelia Deshmukh plays the role of Aamir's wife Sunita, and comes across well in the limited screen time she gets.

What the film seemed to lack

On the downside, I thought the transformation of Gulshan, the coach, didn't come across as powerfully as it should have. There were several points to it, but it didn't look like he was a changed person.

Also, as the movie progressed, many of the sequences in the initial stages seemed predictable, and I seriously wondered where was the story heading to, and how it would end. 

But, I must say, the ending was good, and it packed and delivered the social message quite well.

I’d give a rating of 4 out of 5. 

Overall, a simple, emotional story with an important social message told with warmth and respect.

First Test: India fall short at Headingley against England

Ben Duckett's 149 set the stage for England's
successful chase of 371. Reuters/India Today

India lost the opening Test of the England series at Headingley by five wickets, but honestly, it was one of the most entertaining matches I’ve watched in a while.

It wasn’t a one-sided affair. Plenty of runs were scored, and despite a few rain interruptions, the Test still yielded a result.

When England won the toss and put India into bat, there were plenty of doubts about how well the team, without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, would hold up.

All but three failed

Three superb centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal (101), Shubman Gill (147), and Rishabh Pant (134) raised hopes early. 

But here's the catch: those three alone accounted for 81% of India’s first-innings total of 471. That says a lot.

Jasprit Bumrah stood out

India’s bowling attack was supposed to outshine England’s. Yet, England nearly matched India's total, conceding a mere six-run lead.

Jasprit Bumrah was brilliant. He picked up five wickets for 83 runs in 24.4 overs. 

But Prasidh Krishna proved far too expensive, leaking 128 runs in 20 overs while taking three wickets. Mohammad Siraj also underwhelmed, giving away 122 runs in 27 overs for just two wickets.

Same story again

In the second innings, India's batting faltered again. Rishabh Pant sparkled once more with another century (118), and K. L. Rahul chipped in with 137. But together, they made up 70% of our total score of 364. The rest just didn’t deliver.

Chasing 371 with more than a day left, England never looked threatened. If anything, rain posed a bigger danger to them than India's bowlers.

A convincing victory

With ample time, England’s batters stayed calm and composed, needing just four runs an over. 

As long as they kept wickets in hand, the task was straightforward. Despite India's best efforts, England’s top order remained resolute.

Ben Duckett set the stage with 149. Zak Crawley scored 65 leaving Joe Root (53 not out) and Jamie Smith (44 not out) to steer the team past the mark with ample overs and time left.