London, Aug 2: Akash Deep, a name that has so far made ripples with the ball, carved out a unique chapter for himself with the bat on Day 3 of the fifth and final Test of the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
The Bengal pacer, promoted as a nightwatch, defied expectations with a resilient 66-run knock — his maiden Test fifty and his highest score in all forms of first-class cricket.
India, having been bowled out for 224 on the second morning, clawed back with the ball to dismiss England for 247, keeping the match on a razor’s edge. By stumps on Day 2, the visitors were 75 for 2 in their second innings, with Yashasvi Jaiswal steady on fifty and Akash Deep unbeaten on four.
When play resumed on Day 3, England hoped to knock over the nightwatch early. But Akash Deep, showing temperament far beyond what his position in the order suggested, frustrated the hosts. He batted with intent, survived a dropped catch on 21 by Zak Crawley in the slips, and then grew in confidence to stitch a dogged partnership with Jaiswal.
Eventually, Deep brought up his first half-century in Test cricket — a feat that placed him in rarefied air. In the long history of Indian batters at No.4 in England across men’s and women’s cricket, only 12 have scored a fifty. And in men’s Tests since 1990, only three Indians had managed the feat: Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and Shubman Gill. Akash Deep is now the fourth.
His stay at the crease ended just ten minutes before lunch, when he was dismissed for 66 — a leading edge off Jamie Overton looping tamely into waiting hands. But the impact of his innings had already reverberated well beyond the scorecard.Having earlier picked up a ten-wicket haul in the second Test at Edgbaston, Deep also became just the fourth Indian pacer — after Kapil Dev, Irfan Pathan, and Jhulan Goswami — to claim a ten-wicket match haul and score a half-century in the same Test series. It’s a feat recorded just 41 times in Test history, and only nine times in this century. The last cricketer to do so was England’s Stuart Broad, who achieved the double against the West Indies in 2020.
From a nightwatchman to a name now etched among some of Indian cricket’s finest, Akash Deep’s knock has not only tilted momentum India’s way but also offered a glowing reminder — Test cricket still loves a good underdog story. (Agencies)
