United in Manchester: Four batters, five sessions, one stand

Ravindra Jadeja's voice cut through the post-lunch hum at Old Trafford. It wasn't a one-off. Every time he or Washington Sundar nudged a ball into a gap, Jadeja called out, loud and clear, urging his partner to run, to push, to keep the scoreboard ticking. The tone was urgent but composed.

It was the start of the second session – the fourth of five India needed to survive to save the Manchester Test, and the series. Shubman Gill had just fallen for a masterful 103, minutes before the interval. And India have had a complicated relationship with collapses and breaks this series. Behind Jadeja and Washington were Shardul Thakur, three No.11s, and a hobbling Rishabh Pant with a fractured toe. There wasn't much room for optimism if another wicket fell. But Jadeja and Washington were giving it a go.

This was the defining passage of play. The first session had brought 49 runs in 26 overs – a terrific show of resistance – but both leaders of that resistance, Gill and KL Rahul, had fallen after batting for 379 and 300 minutes respectively. In contrast, the eight overs after lunch yielded 37 runs. Suddenly, England had a moving target. The more runs India added and edged into a lead, the more time England would need to get them, and the less there'd be left in the match. The draw, once a faint hope, was now being dragged into the realm of possibility.

And somehow, Jadeja and Washington made it real.

India won't win their first Test series in England since 2007. But they haven't lost it either. At least, not yet. And after spending 157.1 overs in the field and collapsing to 0 for 2 in their second innings, they batted five sessions to keep 'The Oval' alive. Old Trafford's pitch held firm through five days, but this was still a different kind of defiance – a kind of self-denial modern cricket rarely demands. Ten straight hours of stillness and stubbornness. The kind that bruises. The kind that tests the will and physicality as much as the technique.

Manchester 2025 will stand as a marker, a placeholder for this era of India's Test cricket, and of the demands this format will make of those who feature. Few passages captured that better than the partnerships between Jadeja and Washington, and Gill and Rahul, who between them batted 875 balls. Even their symmetry felt deliberate, maybe even poetic. In a match that ended with the timing of the handshake drawing scrutiny, this one featured a quiet handhold across generations.. Not long ago, Gill and Rahul were competing for the same Test spot. Washington is widely seen as Jadeja's natural successor. And here they were in Manchester, two pairs from the present and the future, each enduring through two sessions. No clash. No contradiction. Just a shared belief: to save a Test, sometimes, you have to unlearn everything you know.

Jadeja walked out with a point to prove. He had four consecutive fifties but his defining image from the series was of him being wrapped in a hug by Stokes. At Lord's on the final day he had fought heroically but came out on the wrong end of the result. Today, he couldn't win India the series, but he could still keep them from losing it.

For England, the challenge shifted. The patch that had troubled the right-handers now lay safely beyond leg stump for the two lefties at the crease. Archer's strong record against left-handers and Dawson's access to the rough posed fresh questions, on paper. But one was in just his second Test back in four years, the other in his first after eight. Into a fifth gruelling day, neither had the precision to make it count. And Jadeja and Washington kept the runs ticking just enough to complicate Stokes' plans.

The short-ball ploy arrived, of course – leg-side field, heavy into-the-body lines – but both batters handled it easily. When a wilting Stokes was pulled away for six and four in the same over by Washington, the plan was shelved. Joe Root was tried. Bowlers' ends were swapped. Zak Crawley was even seen lobbing the ball onto the practice strips in hope of scuffing it up for reverse swing. The umpires quickly intervened.

But the pitch stayed flat, the batters stayed firm, and as Stokes would later say that his team 'threw everything' at the pair and they simply wouldn't budge. Into the final hour of the 60th session of this Test series, there was little left but for Stokes to offer the handshake. India were happy to accept, but only after both rearguard warriors had reached deserving centuries.

For Washington, it was something more personal. In a series where his role seemed uncertain, where he was sledged at Lord's for daring to show confidence in a press conference, this was the perfect riposte: a maiden Test century, scored on a fifth day, under pressure, to save a match. For Jadeja, it was sweet validation. After years of playing the enabler, the 36-year-old – now the elder brother of this team – finally had a hundred to himself.