India’s 2021 The Oval Test heroes

04 June,2023 06:22 PM IST |  Mumbai  |  Karan Shankar

As Rohit Sharma & Co prepare to take on Australia in the all-important World Test Championship final at The Oval from June 7 to 11, mid-day.com looks at the five stars of India’s previous game at the same venue in September 2021 when they defeated England by 157 runs to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series

Virat Kohli (L), Rohit Sharma-Cheteshwar Pujara (R), Pic: AFP


Shardul Thakur

India's Shardul Thakur celebrates his half-century in the second innings.PIC/AFP

India's batting all-rounder Shardul Thakur had a dream game at The Oval as he scored fifties in both innings - 57 and 60 - and picked three wickets. Not to mention, his strike rate while batting was very impressive too - 158.33 and 83.33 in the first and second innings respectively. Coming in at No. 6, his brisk runs helped India in both innings. Thakur also took the prized wicket of then England captain, Joe Root in the second innings.

Rohit Sharma

India's Rohit Sharma (left) celebrates his century with teammate Cheteshwar Pujara. PIC/AFP

While Rohit Sharma did get out for 11 in the first innings, he came back strong in the second to get 127. India were trailing by 99 at the start of the innings. His ton gave them the perfect foundation to flip the advantage in their favour. Rohit was also the player of the match for the Test.

Umesh Yadav

India's Umesh Yadav (third from left) celebrates Joe Root's wicket. PIC/AFP

This was the only Test Umesh Yadav played in the five-Test series. He picked three wickets in each innings (3-76 and 3-60). His three strikes dismantled England's middle-order in the first innings in the space of 10 runs.

Virat Kohli

India's 2021 skipper Virat Kohli. PIC/AFP

Then India captain Virat Kohli, played two handy knocks of 50 and 44.

In the first innings, where most Indian batsmen struggled, only Kohli and Thakur crossed 50 runs while the next highest score was 17 by KL Rahul.

Jasprit Bumrah

India's Jasprit Bumrah.PIC/AFP

India's lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah also had a good game at The Oval, where he took two wickets in each innings - 2-67 and 2-27 - and scored 24 vital runs batting at No. 10 in the second innings. All four wickets were top-order and middle-order batsmen; three of them clean bowled.

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