| 20-24 June | INDIA 471 & 364 ENGLAND 465 & 373-5 | ENGLAND won by five wickets | Headingley |
| 2-6 July | INDIA 587 & 427-6 dec ENGLAND 407 & 271 | INDIA won by 336 runs | Edgbaston |
| 10-14 July | ENGLAND 387 & 192 INDIA 387 & 170 | ENGLAND won by 22 runs | Lord's |
| 23-27 July | INDIA 358 & 425-4 ENGLAND 669 | DRAWN | Old Trafford |
| 31-4 August | INDIA 224 & 396 ENGLAND 247 & 367 | INDIA won by six runs | The Oval |
INDIA pipped England by six runs to secure a 2-2 draw as an engrossing five-Test series concluded in thrilling fashion at the Oval.
At 11:56am on the 25th day of cricket in the series out of a possible 25, player of the match Mohammed Siraj breached Gus Atkinson's defences - and the Indian fielders huddled together in joy as they celebrated their closest ever win in Tests.
In fairness, across the seven weeks as a whole, a draw was a fair result - and both sides will be left to reflect on several spurned opportunities each.
First, the ghosts of 2022 returned to haunt the tourists as England chased down an unlikely target of 371 to take the opening match at Headingley.
Back in the early days of Bazball in July 2022, England chased 378 for the loss of only three wickets in a rearranged match against India at Edgbaston as Joe Root (142*) and Jonny Bairstow (114*) shared a glorious unbeaten stand of 269.
This time, the damage was done at the top of the order as Zak Crawley (65) and Ben Duckett (149) set up the pursuit brilliantly before Root (53*) and wicketkeeper Jamie Smith (44*) finished things off.
In the second Test at Edgbaston, though, the tourists made no mistake as their new captain Shubman Gill enjoyed something of a magnum opus.
Gill headed into the series with an underwhelming average of 35.05 - but, having already scored 147 in the first innings at Lord's, the 25-year-old propelled his team to a comprehensive victory in Birmingham with 269 and 161.
As such, Gill became the first player to record scores in excess of 250 and 150 in the same Test - as India made 587 and 427-6 declared to thrash England by the huge margin of 336 runs.
Yet Stokes's men then responded brilliantly in a nerve-shredding third Test at Lord's where the teams were level on first innings and the sparks really began to fly.
In a fascinating turn of events, India's innings ended at 6.14pm, shortly before the close of Day Three, leaving England openers Crawley and Duckett with around 10 minutes of batting during which they had very little to gain and their precious wicket to lose.
And so we entered pantomime season.
From the fifth ball of the England innings, delivered by Jasprit Bumrah, Crawley was hit on the glove and received treatment for long enough that only a measly single over was possible, much to the annoyance of the Indians.
“Grow some f**king balls!” screamed skipper Gill to Crawley as the Kent man indulged in his delaying tactics.
If anything, though, Crawley's time-wasting merely served to fire up the Indian bowlers on the following day as England struggled their way to a score of 192 - and fellow opener Duckett received an aggressive send-off from Siraj for which the seamer was fined 15% of his match fee.
Notably, that was not Siraj's last contribution to this match as India then similarly struggled on a deteriorating Day Five pitch.
At 112-8 on the stroke of lunch, the tourists were still 81 short of their target and England looked to have the win in the bag.
Wily Ravindra Jadeja remained at the crease, however - and the 36-year-old expertly managed the strike with tail-enders Bumrah and then Siraj.
But the prospect of the second new ball seemed to spook Jadeja into a change of tack with runs taking on a greater emphasis as the victory line moved ever closer.
To be fair to him, Siraj largely batted well and did his job - until suddenly he didn't.
Facing Shoaib Bashir, who was bowling his off-spin with a broken finger sustained while batting, Siraj looked to have made another safe block from the fifth ball of the 75th over.
As the ball hit the pitch though, some wicked back-spin took it past the unsuspecting Siraj and clunked into leg stump, removing one of the bails to bring a decidedly odd end to a fantastic match.
Elated England thus squeaked the win by 22 runs, regaining the lead in the series at 2-1 with two matches to play - and the hosts set about pressing home their advantage after winning the toss for the fourth time out of four at the start of the Test at Old Trafford.
However, Manchester decided not to play ball - and a slow flat pitch produced a largely mind-numbing encounter as an aggregate of 1,452 runs were scored for the loss of 14 wickets in only the second draw out of 33 matches in the Bazball era.
Old Trafford was also the venue for the first draw which arguably cost England their greatest Ashes series comeback of all time as typical Manchester rain intervened to wipe out almost two days of play.
Notably, all six Lancashire matches at the ground in the County Championship have also ended in draws.
Simply put, Old Trafford might not be able to do much about the rain - but, for all the tradition at the venue, it can also do so much better.
There were still some notable moments as Root compiled a 38th century - fourth on the all-time list - and went second on the all-time list of Test run scorers.
For the record, the Yorkshireman finished the series with 39 tons and 13,543 career Test runs, 2,378 behind legendary Indian record-holder Sachin Tendulkar.
But perhaps the match will be most remembered for Jadeja rejecting Stokes's handshake on a draw as he approached a fifth Test century on a ridiculously placid surface.
Now, normally Stokes can be generally considered to have good judgement on a cricket field - and, in this matter, he was only acting in line with the ingrained tradition that a captain offers his hand after deciding victory was no longer possible.
At the same time, Jadeja and Washington Sundar were well within their rights to bat on, especially the latter given that the pitch pretty much guaranteed him a maiden Test century.
Indeed, this was an incident rather blown out of all proportion - compared to the rather more questionable behaviour of the India coach Gautam Gambhir as he ended up in an unsavoury row with pitch curator Lee Fortis ahead of the fifth Test at the Oval.
Then again, it was perhaps no surprise Gambhir wanted a closer look at the first proper green-top of the series - and, under the clouds, it was equally unsurprising that England opted to bowl after winning the toss yet again despite fielding a much-changed bowling attack.
Over the course of the series, England selected no fewer than nine frontline bowlers with only Chris Woakes appearing in all five matches.
Even he eventually ended up as a complete wreck after sustaining a suspected dislocated shoulder on the opening day at the Oval.
So, while not exactly helped by such docile surfaces in a sun-baked summer, the English attack without James Anderson and Stuart Broad is a major cause for concern - especially ahead of an away Ashes series.
Jofra Archer bowled well when called upon but remains largely wrapped up in cotton wool given his horrendous injury record.
Meanwhile, the only other genuine 90mph bowler, Mark Wood, did not feature at all as he continues to recover from a crocked knee.
As such, it was skipper Stokes, an all-rounder, who was often the most threatening England bowler - but, having taken on 35 overs in the fourth Test, he also ruled himself out of playing the finale.
England missed him badly at the Oval - bowling erratically and fielding worse - though the hosts were understandably damaged by a further injury, this time to Woakes, as they were left effectively with just a three-man seam-only attack.
Indeed, at 177-2 and 229-4 in their second innings, India had the chance to bat England out of the contest entirely - but, the improving Josh Tongue earned a second Test five-for as the visitors were dismissed for 396.
The mouth-watering target for England was 374 - historically difficult but in exactly the same ballpark as the chase at Headingley and several others in the Bazball era.
At lunch on Day Four, the hosts were rebuilding with Root and Harry Brook at 164-3 following another under-par second innings effort of 27 from stand-in captain Ollie Pope.
Twin centurions Root and Brook extended their partnership to 195 as Siraj had another moment to forget after stepping on the boundary rope while catching Brook at fine leg.
In keeping with the series though, India roared back as Brook lost control of his bat while holing out shortly before tea and the returning Jacob Bethell was bowled by Prasidh Krishna shortly after.
However, before a heavy shower and bad light brought a premature close of play, India put themselves right back in with a chance as Root feathered behind with England still 37 runs short.
Smith, Jamie Overton and Tongue offered only limited resistance on Day Five - and Woakes, with his arm in a sling under his whites, made his way tenderly to the crease to join Atkinson.
Then, amazingly, India - on top at last - briefly lost their nerve as Atkinson slogged Siraj for six, then Woakes managed to get to the other end off the last ball for a bye to stay off strike.
From the next over, bowled by Prasidh, Woakes somehow defied absolute agony to run two before another single off the last again kept Atkinson on strike with seven runs needed to win.
But Siraj, who had an extraordinary series of ups and downs, was too good for his English counterpart - and, as the ball clattered into off-stump, the Indian's rollercoaster campaign finished on a big high with a fifth career five-for in Tests.
It ensured, of course, that India matched their 2-2 series score from 2021-22 - while the last Ashes series also finished 2-2.
So, while England certainly make a conscious effort not to play for draws, there is a frustrating irony in the fact that their three biggest home series since 2022 have all finished level.
CENTURIES
INDIA 12-9 ENGLAND
| 269 | Shubman Gill | India | Second Test, Edgbaston (1) |
| 184* | Jamie Smith | England | Second Test, Edgbaston (2) |
| 161 | Shubman Gill | India | Second Test, Edgbaston (3) |
| 158 | Harry Brook | England | Second Test, Edgbaston (2) |
| 150 | Joe Root | England | Fourth Test, Old Trafford (2) |
| 149 | Ben Duckett | England | First Test, Headingley (4) |
| 147 | Shubman Gill | India | First Test, Headingley (1) |
| 141 | Ben Stokes | England | Fourth Test, Old Trafford (2) |
| 137 | KL Rahul | India | First Test, Headingley (3) |
| 134 | Rishabh Pant | India | First Test, Headingley (1) |
| 118 | Rishabh Pant | India | First Test, Headingley (3) |
| 118 | Yashasvi Jaiswal | India | Fifth Test, The Oval (3) |
| 111 | Harry Brook | England | Fifth Test, The Oval (4) |
| 107* | Ravindra Jadeja | India | Fourth Test, Old Trafford (3) |
| 106 | Ollie Pope | England | First Test, Headingley (2) |
| 105 | Joe Root | England | Fifth Test, The Oval (4) |
| 104 | Joe Root | England | Third Test, Lord's (1) |
| 103 | Shubman Gill | India | Fourth Test, Old Trafford (3) |
| 101* | Washington Sundar | India | Fourth Test, Old Trafford (3) |
| 101 | Yashasvi Jaiswal | India | First Test, Headingley (1) |
| 100 | KL Rahul | India | Third Test, Lord's (2) |
FIVE-FORS
INDIA 5-3 ENGLAND
| 6-70 | Mohammed Siraj | India | Second Test, Edgbaston (2) |
| 6-99 | Akash Deep | India | Second Test, Edgbaston (4) |
| 5-33 | Gus Atkinson | England | Fifth Test, The Oval (1) |
| 5-72 | Ben Stokes | England | Fourth Test, Old Trafford (1) |
| 5-74 | Jasprit Bumrah | India | Third Test, Lord's (1) |
| 5-83 | Jasprit Bumrah | India | First Test, Headingley (2) |
| 5-104 | Mohammed Siraj | India | Fifth Test, The Oval (4) |
| 5-125 | Josh Tongue | England | Fifth Test, The Oval (3) |
