"Happiest moment in recent times for Indian cricket lovers"- Sunil Gavaskar picks the most 'enduring memory' from ENG vs IND 2025 Test series

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that the happiest moment for Indian fans from the recently concluded Test series against England was when Mohammed Siraj dismissed Gus Atkinson to win the Oval Test and level the series 2-2. The pacer dismissed Atkinson for 17 to help India win the match by six runs on the final day.

Needing four wickets to win on the last day, Siraj removed three home batters to dent their chances of victory. Reflecting on the moment, Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar:

"The enduring memory will always be Mohammed Siraj’s yorker that flattened the off-stump of Gus Atkinson to give India a win to level the series. After the disappointing last season in Test cricket, this would no doubt be the happiest moment in recent times for Indian cricket lovers."

Sunil Gavaskar also supported the BCCI's decision to not organize a tour to Sri Lanka in place of the Bangladesh series, which has been postponed to September 2026. He felt even the players who went as part of a second string squad to such tours would be better off taking a break.

"For far too long, Indian cricket has tried to live up to its eminent position in the game by ensuring that it sends a team to some of the fellow full member countries so that those countries can benefit from broadcast and gate revenue. While most of the senior and established players take a breather from these tours, those who are trying to concretise their places in the team go through another tour when their minds and bodies could do with a bit of a break.

"It was good, therefore, to see that after the tour to Bangladesh was postponed to next year, the BCCI resisted the pressure to send a team for a white-ball series to Sri Lanka this month," Gavaskar wrote.

Sunil Gavaskar calls for spaced out bilateral tours in future to offer fringe players a chance to play

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar also called for bilateral series to be more spaced out in future. He felt that bigger breaks on tours would offer fringe or out-of-form players some game time to get back into their groove. He opined (in the same column):

"Hopefully, next time around there will be a few more days’ gap between Test matches, as suggested by England skipper Ben Stokes. Modern tours are made for senior established players who do not want to spend a day more than is necessary.

"That leaves the fringe players, as well as those who are out of form, no opportunity to get some form back and make a meaningful contribution to the team. The established players know that come what may, they will not be dropped on form and so want to play the Tests and get back home."

England and India played out a five-Test series in a span of 44 days. There were mere three-day gaps between the second and third Tests, as well as the fourth and the fifth Tests.