ENG vs IND 2025: India register unwanted record with stark top-bottom order run-scoring contrast in Headingley Test
Although India registered scores of 471 and 364 in their two innings, their overall batting effort left much to be desired.
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Irrespective of the outcome of the first Test of the ongoing five-match Test series between England and India, the latter will have a lot of questions to answer with respect to their all-round batting performance. With their batting efforts in both innings of the Test, they found themselves on the wrong side of cricketing history as far as Test cricket is concerned.
For context, across both innings, the top five for India scored 721 runs. On the other hand, the batters coming in the bottom six of the order could only muster 65 runs. This difference of 656 runs between the top five and bottom six is the highest for India in a Test (in which they have gotten bowled out in both innings) in their 590-Test history.
This glaring disparity beat the 484 and 460-run margins which India had recorded in their games in Melbourne (2003) and Adelaide (2014). India had ended up losing both these games quite comprehensively. The lower middle-order batters and tailenders not contributing enough could be deemed as one of the main reasons behind their defeats.
Biggest difference between runs scored by top five and bottom six for India in Tests:
| Test | Runs scored by top five | Runs scored by bottom six | Difference |
| England vs India (2025) | 721 | 65 | 656 |
| Australia vs India (2003) | 573 | 69 | 484 |
| Australia vs India (2014) | 598 | 138 | 460 |
As far as this game is concerned, India witnessed five centuries across both innings; three in the first and two in the second. The centurions contributed a total of 637 runs. This means that the rest of the six batters across both innings scored a meagre 147 runs in total.
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