Unforced errors deny India a deserved series win in England

A hard-fought 2-2 draw in the recently finished Test series between India and England told a powerful story of dominance that wasn’t always reflected on the scoreboard. Both the 2021-22 and now the 2025 series have been competitive, much like Virat Kohli‘s post-series remarks from 2018, when he said he thought India’s performance was better than what the 4-1 scoreline implied. In this most recent match, England’s ability to win important moments—often with the help of luck and unintentional mistakes from the opposition—was matched against India’s statistical dominance.

This was the fourth drawn series played anywhere in the time frame (3+ Tests), and with a 2-2 record, England had not won a series against either Australia or India, at home or away, since 2019. England played either Australia or India at home in all four of the drawn matches. While the home team won the crucial moments when everything was evenly balanced, the figures showed that India was outperforming them.

In contrast to England’s 37.57 and nine individual hundreds, India’s batsmen averaged 39.77 and achieved 12 hundreds. Thanks to England’s ‘Bazball’ strategy, India’s seamers averaged 34.95 with the ball, compared to 36.53 for England, and took wickets more quickly despite giving up runs more frequently. With 14 wickets at 55.50 compared to England’s 13 at 72.46, India’s spin attack also outperformed England’s.

Teams were separated by less than 25 runs at the end of their respective first innings in three of the five games, which is only the second time this has ever happened in a rubber. Another first was that two of the games were decided by fewer than 25 runs.

Comparison of series

Compared to 16% by the home side attack, India managed to extract 21% false answers from England batters. In a series of three or more Test matches, this was the fifth drew rubber in the past ten years (since 2015), and only in one of those instances was the difference in false shot percentage between the two teams greater. In 2018, after playing 24.6% false shots against 19.5% by the West Indies, Sri Lanka drew 1-1 in the Caribbean. In a very uncommon instance, the visitors were unable to push for a well-earned series victory despite playing more home games than the home club.

In drawn series over the past ten years, the batting team’s false shot differential

Throughout the series, the pattern was clear. The only time England was able to get more incorrect answers from India than the other way around was during the drew Test match in Manchester. Furthermore, the difference was only 1.2% even at that point. Indian bowlers were able to draw a greater percentage of incorrect shots than their England counterparts in each of the other four Test matches, exceeding 5% in each instance.

Each Test’s false shot difference (by batting team)

Unforced errors were the difference in a series where India dominated most, if not all, of the metrics. Compared to England, which lost only nine wickets to balls under their control, India lost 22. India collapsed from a position of strength, falling from 430/3 to 471 all out, after captain Shubman Gill was dismissed off Shoaib Bashir in the first innings of the first Test. Vice-captain Rishabh Pant did the same in the second innings in the same Test, attempting to hit Bashir and hitting a fielder in the deep. India finished their innings at 364 after starting at 287/3 and leading by 293.

After nearly going wicketless in the third Test at Lord’s, England got a foot in the door thanks to Pant’s unlucky run out just before lunch. Mohammed Siraj on his haunches after middleing a ball from Bashir that rolled back onto the stumps and had enough force to dislodge a bail—another instance of an Indian batter losing his wicket despite being in control—is arguably the most iconic picture of the series. Although Gill’s second runout dismissal of the series in the last Test at the Oval was almost disastrous, India ultimately prevailed.

England’s prospects are enhanced by dropped catches.

In a series where the bat controlled the ball, the bowlers needed the fielders to pouch whatever came their way. Dropped catches are just as important to cricket play as boundaries or wickets. This wasn’t the case for either attack, which was unfortunate for the bowlers, but it harmed the superior team—in this case, India—more.

India lost 718 runs in the series as a result of dropping 23 catches, compared to England’s 17; the home team lost 587 runs. (The total of the hitters’ final scores plus the score at where they were dropped for the first time throughout the innings is the additional runs.) The gap significantly swung the balance in England’s favour in a series in which two Test matches were decided by less than 25 runs.

After being dropped for the first time in that innings, Harry Brook, the Player of the Series for England, was the luckiest batter, contributing half of his series total (240 of the 481 runs). In addition, Jasprit Bumrah dismissed him off a no-ball in the Leeds Test’s opening innings, providing him with a reprieve before he could score. Brook’s green streak in the series was further highlighted as he went on to make 99.

Following their initial decline in an innings, six batters—four of whom were from England—added more than 100 runs. Ollie Pope, with 123 runs, and Jamie Smith, with 130 more, come after Brook. As the series went on, the luck progressively shifted. At the conclusion of the Lord’s Test, India lost 573 more runs than England, who scored 230, due to a significantly lopsided missed catches ratio that favoured England 7 to 18.

However, it was 10-5 against the home team in the last two Test matches, as England scored 357 extra runs while India only managed 145. With an additional 120 runs, Ravindra Jadeja was the luckiest Indian batter. He scored an undefeated match-saving hundred after being dropped off the first ball in India’s second innings in Manchester. On the third evening of the Oval Test, Yashasvi Jaiswal was dropped twice, but he took full advantage of the situation to make a century that increased India’s lead. Akash Deep, his overnight partner, was also released on 21 and went on to earn a crucial 66. Gill, the series’ top scorer, only contributed 57 more runs after drops.