3 Reasons Why India Lost 1st Test vs England: The India vs England Test series 2025 for the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy got underway with a thrilling match at Headingley. The hosts emerged victorious in the last session of day 5, with rain adding drama to the final day.
Ben Stokes’ England continued to romp down targets in Test cricket, while India suffered a historic loss. This is the first time in the history of Test cricket that a team that had five centuries still lost the match.
England went past their own record to attain the second-highest successful run chase at Headingley. While India had five centuries, England’s chase was led by Ben Duckett’s terrific 149 (170), who formed an 188-run opening stand with Zak Crawley.
Despite taking a slender first innings lead and dominating several sessions, India had plenty of areas to worry about following the loss in the first India vs England Test in Leeds. Let’s look at the three chief reasons why India suffered a defeat.
India vs England: 3 Reasons Why India Lost 1st Test vs England
Dropped catches
Catches win matches is the old saying in cricket, and the contrast of that is also often true: dropped catches, especially those in abundance, lose matches. No team over the past 20 years in England dropped as many catches as India did at Headingley.
India dropped six catches in the first India vs England Test, which was certainly a significant reason for their defeat. This included dropped catches of Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, who scored 106 and 99, respectively, in England’s first innings. Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped three of those six catches.
Batting collapses in both innings
It is shocking that despite having three centurions in their first innings, India managed to post 471 and not go past 500. This is because India suffered a collapse from 430/3 to 471 all out.
It’s even more shocking that a similar collapse happened in India’s second innings when they slid from 333/4 to 364 all out. This meant India couldn’t set England a target of over 400.
India could have batted England out of the game in the first innings, or set a daunting target in the second innings. But failed to do so.
Change bowlers couldn’t back up Bumrah and Siraj
Jasprit Bumrah did Jasprit Bumrah things: in England’s first innings, he took five wickets for 83 runs. But others failed to support him: the other four bowlers took five wickets for 356 runs. That tells the story of why England almost equalled India’s first innings total despite Bumrah’s brilliance.
In England’s second innings, while Siraj stepped up and bowled with venom, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur were inconsistent and offered boundaries regularly, now building any pressure; Krishna’s economy was 6.1 and Thakur’s was 5.1.
The second India vs England Test will kick off on July 2 at Edgbaston.
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