India vs England Pataudi Trophy 2021-22: Final 2-2 (India Led 2-1; 5th Test Cancelled COVID — Rescheduled Edgbaston 2022) — India 78 All Out Headingley, Rohit 127 Oval, KL Rahul 129 Lord's, Root-Bairstow Unbeaten Chase Edgbaston, Pant 146, Jadeja 104

The India tour of England Pataudi Trophy 2021-22 was a 5-match Test series that finished 2-2 — an unusual result produced by an unusual series: 4 Tests were played in August-September 2021, the 5th was cancelled on the morning it was due to start (September 10, 2021) due to a COVID-19 outbreak in the Indian support staff, and the match was rescheduled to Edgbaston in July 2022. India led 2-1 when the Old Trafford cancellation occurred. Joe Root scored 6 Test centuries in 2021, equalling Denis Compton (1947) and Michael Vaughan (2002) for the England record in a single calendar year. 1st Test Trent Bridge (August 4-8, 2021): Match drawn — ENG 183 & 303; IND 278 & 52/1. Root scored 109 in England's 2nd innings (Player of the Match); KL Rahul scored 84 on Test return. India were 52/1 chasing 209 on the final day when rain ended play. 2nd Test Lord's (August 12-16, 2021): India won by 151 runs — IND 364 & 298/8d; ENG 391 & 120. KL Rahul scored 129 in India's 1st innings (Player of the Match — his century on Test comeback after a period out of the Test side). England were bowled out for 120 chasing 272 — India's bowlers dismantling the lower and middle order. 3rd Test Headingley (August 25-28, 2021): England won by innings and 76 runs — ENG 432; IND 78 & 278. Root scored 121. India collapsed to 78 all out in their 1st innings; Ollie Robinson took a five-wicket haul and was Player of the Match. Pujara top-scored with 91 in India's follow-on innings but could not prevent the innings defeat. 4th Test The Oval (September 2-6, 2021): India won by 157 runs — IND 191 & 466; ENG 290 & 210. England led by 99 on 1st innings; India then scored 466 in their 2nd innings. Rohit Sharma scored 127 (Player of the Match); Shardul Thakur contributed 57 and 60 as a lower-order batsman. England needed 368 but were bowled out for 210. India led the series 2-1. 5th Test Old Trafford (September 10, 2021): Cancelled on the morning of the match. India's physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive for COVID-19; head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, and fielding coach R. Sridhar were already isolating after testing positive earlier in the tour. India could not field a team safely. The ECB initially discussed a forfeit but the match was formally declared postponed. Rescheduled 5th Test Edgbaston (July 1-5, 2022): England won by 7 wickets — IND 416 & 245; ENG 284 & 378/3. India scored 416 in their 1st innings: Rishabh Pant made 146 and Ravindra Jadeja scored 104. James Anderson took 5/60; Ollie Robinson also bowled effectively. In England's 1st innings of 284, Mohammed Siraj took 4/66 and Bumrah took 3/68. Stuart Stokes took 4/33 in India's 2nd innings (245). England chased 378 — Root scored 142* and Jonny Bairstow scored 114* in an unbeaten 269-run partnership that secured the chase, levelling the series at 2-2.

India 78 All Out at Headingley and the 3rd Test Turnaround

India's collapse to 78 all out in the 1st innings at Headingley — after England had posted 432 — was one of the most shocking reversals of a series in which India had clearly been the stronger side for two Tests. England's bowlers found conditions at Headingley — typically offering more swing and seam than the other English Test venues — to their advantage; Robinson's five-wicket haul dismantled India's top and middle order before resistance could form. The innings defeat extended England's batting lead to 354 and secured a match England won inside 4 days. Cheteshwar Pujara's 91 in India's 2nd innings was a rearguard of considerable technical quality in the context of an already-lost match, and demonstrated why India's batters remained competitive in the conditions even when conditions and bowling combined against them from the first session.

The Cancelled 5th Test and England's Edgbaston Chase in 2022

The Old Trafford cancellation — announced approximately 2 hours before the first ball on September 10, 2021 — was one of the more unprecedented events in Test cricket. India's touring party had already lost their entire senior coaching staff to COVID isolation (Shastri, Arun, Sridhar) across the preceding days; when physio Parmar tested positive on the morning of the match, India were unable to field their team safely. The ECB initially moved toward counting the match as a forfeit (which would have given England a series tie); India disputed this; the ICC eventually classified the match as postponed. When it was finally played at Edgbaston in July 2022, England (now under Ben Stokes's Bazball captaincy) chased 378 in the 4th innings — Root's 142* and Bairstow's 114* arriving in the context of a team that had just completed similarly improbable chases against New Zealand and South Africa under the new Stokes-McCullum approach. The Root-Bairstow unbeaten stand of 269 for the 5th wicket was the highest partnership in any successful 4th-innings chase by England exceeding 300.