Even before a ball was bowled in the fifth Test between India and England, the visitors had already suffered a crucial setback. At The Oval, India’s worst fear was realised as captain Shubman Gill lost his fifth toss in a row — extending the team's staggering streak to 15 consecutive toss defeats against England. The odds? A staggering 1 in 32,678 — and they came true.
The odds of India losing its 15th successive toss were 1/32678 prior to the last Test of the exhausting series. Ollie Pope served as the interim captain as Ben Stokes was out, injured. India became the first team to accomplish the regrettable feat after Pope flipped the coin, Gill called, and the overwhelming odds became a reality.
Also Read - Rohit Sharma was forced out of Tests? Shocking revelation as former Team India manager lifts the lid
Despite the shift in leadership, India's coin luck has remained unchanged. Following the retirement of his predecessor, Rohit Sharma, Gill assumed the position of Test captain. Pope won his first toss in five Test matches as captain, but India's bad luck persisted.
With yet another stroke of misfortune, India’s dreadful toss record now spans two T20Is, eight ODIs, and five Test matches. Remarkably, this marks the 14th time in history that a team has lost all five tosses in a five-Test series — and the first such instance in the 21st century since India’s tour of England in 2018.
"You are doing these tosses, you are responsible too. You will get sacked," while providing commentary, former England captain Michael Atherton told Shastri in a lighthearted way.
"When the coin landed, he (Gill) did not look up," Shastri continued to joke with Atherton.
Gill didn't linger too much on the statistics while chatting to former head coach Ravi Shastri and stated, "Don't mind losing the toss as long as we win the game. I was a bit confused yesterday about what to do. It was a bit overcast, but the wicket looks good; we'll look to post good runs in the first innings. It should be a good pitch for the bowlers. We've got three changes. Jurel, Karun and Prasidh in for Pant, Shardul and Bumrah. We look for a win every game we play, we've come close, and it's about that 5-10 per cent extra push, boys will be giving it their all."
