India started their 2025 Test series against England with a defeat that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
At Headingley, they became the first team in 148 years of Test cricket to score five individual centuries in a match and lose.
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No team had ever lost after such a dominant batting performance. India just rewrote history, but not in a way any team would want to.
India scored 835 runs across both innings, the fourth-highest total in a Test match defeat.
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They were in control for most of the game. The top order did their job, centuries kept coming, and the scoreboard kept climbing. It should have been a winning total. But by the final day all those runs meant nothing.
England chased down 371 with ease, finishing 373 for 5 in 82 overs. It didn’t even look like a struggle. India with all those runs couldn’t stop the game from slipping away.
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This wasn’t a one off. India’s red ball form has been in decline. In their last 9 Tests the results read: Lost, Lost, Lost, Won, Lost, Draw, Lost, Lost, Lost. That’s one win in nine.
Even though the batsmen stood tall in this match the rest of the team fell apart. Fielding lacked energy. Bowling looked flat. Captaincy didn’t inspire much. When it came to defend the lead India had no answers.
England’s Bazball continues to break records and expectations. This was the second highest successful run chase in England’s Test history, just behind their 378 chase against India in 2022.
What’s more telling is that three of the top four highest team totals in losing causes have come against this Bazball England side. It’s a sign of how their fearless approach is changing the way Test cricket is being played.
Five centuries usually means you’ve done enough to win. But not when the bowlers don’t threaten, catches go down and the fielding lacks intent. There was no visible aggression from India even when the game was slipping away from them.
This wasn’t just a loss. It felt like the team gave up and couldn’t get it back. England played like they believed. India played like they hoped things would turn around on their own.
The second Test is on July 2 in Birmingham and India have no time to lose. This defeat has exposed the cracks in the mindset, execution and leadership.
They made history with five centuries in a match. But that record now comes with one of the most embarrassing defeats in Indian Test history. The series has just started and the pressure is already mounting.
