A five-wicket haul by spinner Ravindra Jadeja, as well as top-notch knocks from skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, double centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal, and debutant Sarfaraz Khan, led England’s ‘Bazball’ brand of cricket to a 434-run defeat in the third Test in Rajkot. The 434-run margin is currently India’s largest Test win in terms of runs, surpassing their previous record of 372 runs against New Zealand in Mumbai in 2021.
This enormous loss comes as a shock to England, who had been riding high on their successful, highly attacking, optimistic, and result-oriented ‘Bazball’ school of cricket under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
This is England’s second greatest loss in Tests, following a 562-run loss to Australia in 1934 at the Oval. Chasing 557, England was bowled out for 122 runs in 39.4 overs, losing by 434 runs. Ravindra Jadeja took 5/41, and Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets. Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah both claimed one wicket. Jadeja won the ‘Player of the Match’ award with a century and seven wickets.