Match overview
England Cricket beat India Cricket by 5 wickets in a high-scoring Test at Headingley, Leeds on 20 June 2025. India posted 471 in their first innings, anchored by Rishabh Pant's 252 off 318 balls. England replied with 465, then dismissed India for 364 in the third innings to set themselves a target of 371. They reached it on 373/5, with BM Duckett named player of the match. The result was England's second win over India in the 2025 series, having also won at Lord's by 22 runs, and pushed back against India's recent dominance, which included a 336-run victory at Edgbaston earlier in the year.
The chase was the story of the final day. Headingley's historical chase success rate sits at just 44 per cent across 135 Test matches, and the ground's average second-innings score is 191. England's 373/5 in the fourth innings ran well clear of both those benchmarks. Duckett's contribution was decisive enough to earn him the match award ahead of Pant, whose 252 was the single most impressive individual performance of the week.
England won the toss and chose to field, looking to exploit any early movement. India's first-innings total of 471 made that call look costly on day one, but the match swung back across five days in ways that reflect how much can change in a Test match at a ground with genuine pace and bounce.
Venue and conditions
Headingley has hosted 135 Test matches and produces conditions that can shift meaningfully between innings. The average first-innings score is 203, which reflects a surface that generally favours bowlers at the start of the match before settling into something more benign for batters. Both sides posting over 460 in the first two innings suggests the pitch was unusually flat in the early stages of this game.
The ground's powerplay average of 41 runs points to lively opening spells, and a toss-field rate of 47 per cent shows captains are reasonably evenly split on whether to bowl first. England's decision to field after winning the toss was defensible on paper, though India's response of 471 tested that logic. The chase-success rate of 44 per cent also means England's fourth-innings victory was genuinely against the historical grain for this ground.
For spin bowlers, the Headingley surface can offer purchase later in a five-day match. Jack Leach's 10/166 in 70.8 overs during the 2022 Test showed that slow bowlers can have a significant role across the full duration of a game here, particularly once footmarks develop outside the right-hander's off stump.
How to watch
Test cricket between England and India in the UK is broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket. Matches can be streamed via Sky Go or through a NOW TV Sports Pass for those without a full Sky subscription. BBC Radio's Test Match Special provides live ball-by-ball commentary across all five days of each Test, available on BBC Radio 4 Long Wave and BBC Sounds.
For the remaining fixtures in this series, Sky Sports' coverage typically begins before the scheduled start time of 11:00 BST, with pre-match analysis from the ground. Check Sky Sports and BBC Sport websites for any schedule changes ahead of each match.
Recent form
India arrived at Headingley on the back of five consecutive Test wins in 2025, beating New Zealand twice, Australia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. That sequence pointed to a side in strong collective form and well-drilled across all conditions. Despite that, England held their own and prevailed.
England had swept West Indies 5–0 in their preceding Test series, though wins against West Indies carry less weight as a form guide than India's results against Australia and New Zealand. Both sides came into the match without much rustiness, and the cricket over five days reflected that quality on both ends. The series continues to be one of the most competitive bilateral Test rivalries in the current cycle, with results at Lord's, The Oval, Edgbaston, and now Headingley all producing tightly contested matches in 2025.
