I have been covering and writing about cricket for 12 years. I’ve watched Ashes battles, home World Cup wins for both the men’s and women’s teams, entertaining T20 finals days, dramatic County Championship title wins and more rain delays than I can count — but this Test series between England and India has been the best.

Perhaps there is an element of recency bias, but I cannot recall a Test series that has given so much on every day: so many talking points, so much drama and tension, such displays of human endurance and resilience. The players were all in, and so were the fans.

One of my roles during a Test is writing our daily live file. It means I’m there, really there — glued to the cricket, yes, but also tuned into the rhythm of the ground. The role demands not just covering the wickets and the runs, but adding colour and texture; the things you wouldn’t get from watching the television or listening to the radio. What the vibe inside the ground is, what the players are doing in the nets before the gates open, what the chat in the press box is, what’s happening on the concourse, what everyone is having for lunch, whether there are any celebrities in the ground, what we’re being told about injuries — as well as monitoring several weather apps and rain radars. I try to let readers feel the match; all of it, not just what’s happening on the 22 yards of cut grass.

Indian cricket fans celebrating a victory.

This series was special because both the players and the fans were all in

STU FORSTER/GETTY

Barely a session went by when I wasn’t delving into statistics while also keeping an eye on the players’ body language and the expressions, shouts and screams of the spectators. Every day, in every ground, there was a full house. Speaking of spectators, one of the many wonderful things about a series against India is the dedication and passion of their supporters. They turn out in huge numbers — more than for any other opposition, even Australia — and always add to the electric atmosphere.

I’ll let you into a secret: sometimes the press conferences at the end of a day’s play can be a bit dull, with no one saying very much at all, but that wasn’t the case in this series. Every day something had happened that we needed to ask about, with both sides continuing the contest from the field into their press conference words. None of it nasty — all of it adding to the entertainment and the intense competition.

In among the needle and the drama, there were individual performances that will be etched in the memory; Joe Root moving second on the all-time list of Test runscorers, the brilliant batting and captaincy by Shubman Gill, and the return of Jofra Archer, with his wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal causing Lord’s to erupt.

Zak Crawley of England and Shubman Gill of India talking after Crawley was hit on the finger.

The series was punctuated by moments of needle, like Gill’s response to Crawley’s time-wasting…

STU FORSTER/GETTY

Jofra Archer appealing during an England v India cricket match.

… and moments of brilliance, like Archer’s scorching first over on his return to Test cricket

ED SYKES/REUTERS

And then there was that incredibly dramatic final Test at the Oval. After the fourth day finished on a knife edge thanks to a random shower, I sent my editor a text message, saying: “Cricket is both the most incredible and stupidest sport ever invented”. That evening we sensed the ending might be special, but not as special as it turned out to be.

There were 56 minutes and every ball was an event. I typed every delivery up for the live file — not something I would normally do — but this warranted it. Never have I been so glad I was taught to touch type. Finding the adjectives to convey the drama on the pitch, and the emotion of seeing a one-armed Chris Woakes walking out to bat, was something of a challenge.

Chris Woakes of England's cricket team walks onto the field with a shoulder injury.

Capturing the emotion of Woakes walking out with one arm in a sling made this series unforgettable

KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AP

Some days in this job you worry there won’t be enough to write about. That was never the case in this series and now, a couple of days after the end, as I reflect on the 25 days of cricket, more things keep coming back to me.

At Headingley, I saw a fan dressed as a traffic cone doing karaoke with an India flag tied around his shoulders. At Edgbaston, I watched a steward help two youngsters get nearer the players for an autograph. At Lord’s, I wandered around the concourse at lunchtime on the fourth day and listened to a fierce debate between a group of friends about whether Zak Crawley’s time-wasting tactics on the third evening were legitimate.

At the Oval, I stood up, along with 25,000 other people, to applaud Woakes walking to the crease and fell in love with Mohammed Siraj — a player who came into the series as Jasprit Bumrah’s understudy and ended it as India’s hero.

I’m not usually overly sentimental or emotional about the cricket I am covering. It is better, in this job, to try to stay calm and objective, but this series brought smiles, a fair few swear words, and a reminder of how privileged I am to be there for these moments.

The summer of 2019, with a home World Cup win at Lord’s and that incredible Ashes innings by Ben Stokes at Headingley, had been the best summer of my career to date, but now this one, 2025, is right up there alongside it. I’ll cover more series, I’ll write more live files, but it’s going to take something special to top the past six weeks.