Visitors India dramatically leveled the five-match away Test series in England by winning the final Test of the series by just six runs at Kennington Oval (The Oval), which was also their narrowest Test winning margin (by runs). Various emotions were running through both teams' squads, while the Indian team finished the series on a high note.  

This five-match Test series, Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025, is unforgettable for the cricket fans, as it is very rare to experience a complete thrilling Test series for all five matches of the series. Every match produced great examples of Test cricket, with both teams never giving up at any moment of the game.  

Before The Oval Test, the last Test of the series, hosts England were leading by 2-1. It meant that India couldn't win the series, but could draw the series by winning the last one. Meanwhile, England couldn't lose the Test series, and they could win the Test series only by avoiding a defeat in the last fixture.

When India set the 374-run fourth innings target for England at The Oval Test, the visitors were favourites. After taking the first three wickets comfortably, Joe Root and Harry Brook hammered the Indian bowlers, as the hosts were close to the fourth innings with the brilliant 195-run partnership for the fourth wicket. However, once that partnership was broken, Indian pacers soon returned on track, as their disciplined bowling performances made the English batting difficult. With consistent pressure and successful wicket-taking abilities, the visitors were always in the game.  

As the fourth day of The Oval Test unfortunately ended due to rain interruptions, the fifth day of the Test match started with England needing 35 runs and India needing four wickets to win. The hosts fought hard and bravely, with Chris Woakes coming to bat with his dislocated shoulder, but India just managed to secure the victory after bowling out the hosts for 367 runs.

[WATCH] Injured Chris Woakes comes out to bat left-handed on Day 5 of ENG vs IND 5th Test

Now, we will see which players said what at the end of the unforgettable Test series. 

The whole team deserves it: KL Rahul

KL Rahul said after the match, "It means absolutely everything. I have played cricket for a while. We won the Champions Trophy. I have seen India lifting the World Cup; nothing compares to lifting the World Cup. But so many doubts, so many questions about whether Test cricket will stay or not. I think both the teams, with the way we have played the series, I guess have answered the question. For us as a team that wasn't given a chance in the series.. for us to fight back and fight every game and get a result of 2-2... Might seem like a draw, but for us and for Indian Test cricket going into the future, this will rank right at the top, and this is where the change begins, and the team will win a lot more series outside of India. The whole team deserves it. Once I joined the team, it hit me (Not having the senior players around). To look around and not see them (Rohit, Virat and Ashwin) felt a bit weird. Everyone came to me and asked me about conditions, and that is when it hit me that okay, I have stepped into a different role to help the younger guys and use all the experience and really put my hand up and stand up for this team. Shubman has been phenomenal. He has really led from the front. Has worked really hard with the boys. He has been tactically really good. The changes he has made have always got us wickets somehow. He will grow further. He is here to stay as a leader and take this Indian Test team to great heights."

I thought I could do it: POTM Mohammed Siraj

The Player of the Match, Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj, bagged nine wickets in The Oval Test match (4/86 & 5/104), including a fifer in the fourth innings. 

In the presentation ceremony, Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj said after winning the Player of the Match award, "I feel amazing because we fought hard from day one til now. My plan was to hit my areas consistently and build pressure. Everything from there was a bonus. When I woke up today, I thought I could do it. I downloaded a picture from Google saying 'believe.' I thought the Brook drop was a game-changing moment. If it had been taken, we might not have come out today. But the way he attacked, hats off to him. Lord's was heartbreaking, Jaddu bhai told me to back my defence and remember my dad and do it for him."

The way India bowled today.....: POTS Harry Brook

There were two Player of the Series awards for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025. Indian Head Coach Gautam Gambhir selected Harry Brook as the Player of the Series award, who scored 481 runs in nine innings of the series, including two centuries and two half-centuries, while the right-handed batter finished as the fifth most run-scorer in the series.

English POTS Harry Brook said, "Came into the day very confident. Had very two good players out there at the time and thought they’d easily see it home. The way India bowled today, they deserve every success. Absolutely, we thought the bowlers would stiffen up a bit and the pitch would flatten out a bit. Siraj has played every game of the series and has bowled every ball 85+mph; respect him a lot. He was always going to go out, massive credit to him. Unfortunate we couldn’t get over the line. So many things you can think in hindsight, we were obviously going so well, if we could’ve got a couple of big overs when I was going, then the game was done. We’ve seen collapses in this series. My thought process was just to hit as many runs as quickly as possible. If we needed 40 runs when I and Rooty were out there and I got out, the game would’ve still been ours. Hindsight’s a beautiful thing, now that I think about it, I probably shouldn’t have played that shot. It’s been an awesome series, very intense series, we’ve been knackered after everything. We’ve put everything out there, we’ve enjoyed every moment of it even though the result didn’t go our way today. It’s such a good advert for Test cricket."

They were making the ball talk: POTS and Indian captain Shubman Gill

On the other hand, Indian captain Shubman Gill won the Player of the Series award for India, which was chosen by the English Head Coach Brendon McCullum. Gill was the leading run-scorer in this Test series with 754 runs in 10 innings, including four centuries. 

Indian skipper and POTS Shubman Gill said, "Definitely both the teams played brilliantly throughout the series. Both the teams came up with their A-game, happy to get on the right side today. When you have bowlers like Siraj and Prasidh, captaincy seems easy. They were making the ball talk. Yes, there was a bit of pressure on us, but they were really bowling well. We were confident. We wanted them to feel the pressure throughput the 37 runs they scored. He is a captain’s dream, every ball, every spell he bowled he came all out and gave it everything for the team. Both teams coming into Day 5 not knowing who would win shows how passionate both teams were and how hard everyone has played. Feels very rewarding, there were certain things I wanted to work on as a batter and it was a goal to end as the best batter of this series, glad to get that goal. It is always a combination of technique and mentality, when you are feeling good mentally then the technique naturally flows. (What he’s learnt through the series) That we never give up."

Disappointed we couldn’t get the series win: English Test captain Ben Stokes

Now, it was the time for English regular Test captain Ben Stokes, who missed the last Test of the series. 

English captain Ben Stokes said, "It’s obviously always difficult when you can’t participate in the game. Another hard-fought game, down to Day 5, both teams have put in so much energy and effort into it. Bitterly disappointed we couldn’t get over the line. But really proud of my team with everything they’ve put in. Disappointed we couldn’t get the series win. When it got to the situation it did, there was no question in Woakesy’s (Chris Woakes) mind (about batting). He spent yesterday thinking about which way around he was going to bat. We’ve got guys who’ve gone out there and played with broken fingers and broken feet. It shows how much it means to these players to play for their countries. I’m very proud of what the players have done, and I’m sure Shubman is too. India-England is always a big series; you get so much emotion. We won’t be going to our bed crying about what was said (on the field), and neither would the Indian players; it’s all part of the passion. Worked incredibly hard to be able to go out there and fulfill my role as an all-rounder. Disappointed I had to miss out on this game. Time to rehab and wait for the big one now (The Ashes). When one of your bowlers goes down so early in the game, everyone else’s role changes. The heart and the desire the big fellows kept showing in that second innings was tremendous. All we ask from the guys is for them to leave everything out on the field. Not ideal when one of your bowlers goes down, but it was a tremendous effort from our three fast bowlers."