England dominate India despite Nair-Washington resilience
London: On the opening day of the fifth and final Test at The Oval (live from 3:30 pm IST), frequent rain interruptions disrupted play, affecting both the pitch and outfield conditions. In those stop-start phases, Indian batters kept losing wickets at regular intervals. By stumps, England held the upper hand with India at 204/6 in their first innings.
Karun Nair is fighting the toughest battle of his Test career, unbeaten on 52 off 98 balls with seven fours, while Washington Sundar is batting on *19. Together, they stitched an unbroken 51-run stand for the seventh wicket.
Team India’s batting line-up, except for a couple of dependable players, looked unreliable on the day. Not a single batter managed to reach a half-century. Sai Sudharsan, despite facing 108 balls, was dismissed for just 38. In the two earlier Tests he played in this series, his scores were: 0, 30, 61, and 0.
That's Stumps on Day 1 of the 5th #ENGvIND Test! #TeamIndia end the rain-curtailed opening Day on 204/6.
We will be back for Day 2 action tomorrow. ⌛️
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/Tc2xpWMCJ6 pic.twitter.com/VKCCZ76MeG— BCCI (@BCCI) July 31, 2025
It almost felt like the rain gods paused just to see Shubman Gill get out. Between two rain breaks, the series star was run out for 21 (35 balls, 4 fours). His dismissal, right after lunch, left India at 83/3 and gave England a big breakthrough. Gill’s impatience cost him dearly, and head coach Gautam Gambhir, seated outside the dressing room, looked visibly displeased.
The day had started with a bit of green grass on the pitch. However, openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (2) and KL Rahul (14) fell cheaply to England’s medium pacers. Jaiswal was trapped LBW in just the fourth over by comeback man Gus Atkinson, who replaced Ben Stokes in the playing XI. In the 16th over, Chris Woakes bowled a delivery that bounced just outside the off-stump. Rahul edged it off the inside of his bat straight onto the stumps.
Ravindra Jadeja, who had put up strong performances at Lord’s and Manchester, was dismissed for 9, caught behind by the wicketkeeper. Stand-in keeper Dhruv Jurel, replacing the injured Rishabh Pant, managed 19 before falling to Atkinson caught at second slip by Harry Brook.
Of India’s six wickets to fall, one (Gill’s) was a runout, while the remaining five were shared: Atkinson and Josh Tongue took two each, and Woakes claimed one.
India made several changes: Dhruv Jurel replaced the injured Pant, Akash Deep came in for Jasprit Bumrah, Karun Nair for Shardul Thakur, and Prasidh Krishna replaced Anshul Kamboj.
For England, captain Ben Stokes was ruled out due to a shoulder injury. Ollie Pope led the side. Jofra Archer was also unavailable, and England made four changes in total.