India Looks Strong Despite Wickets On Day 1: The Indian Cricket Team had a decent day with the bat, highlighted by a century from captain Shubman Gill. This comes after they made three significant changes to the playing XI following the first Test.
Today was Day One of the 2nd England vs India Test match of the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. This match is being played at Edgbaston in Birmingham and saw the home side win the toss and decide to bowl first. The pitch was expected to be a batter-friendly track, with some help for bowlers on the first day. That is exactly how it played out.
India Looks Strong Despite Wickets on Day 1 in the 2nd Test
The surface wasn’t entirely flat, as English pacers like Chris Woakes and Josh Tongue found a little something off the pitch in the beginning. Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul came out to open the batting for India. But in the seventh over, with both batters still finding their rhythm, Jaiswal was caught in front of the wicket, but the umpire signalled not out. DRS’ verdict, umpire’s call.
A couple of overs later, Rahul was played on, as the ball first hit his bat and then the stumps. The last match’s centurion was out for two.
As the sun emerged from the cloudy curtain, batting became easier. This allowed Jaiswal and the incoming Karun Nair to build momentum and score some runs. Then came another Umpire’s Call verdict, this time saving Nair.
The two batters, for the next few overs, increased the Indian Cricket Team’s net run rate by scoring a few exquisite boundaries. The team went past 50 runs, then 60, then 70 as Yashasvi Jasiwal reached his half-century. A valiant inning. However, less than two overs before the end of the first session, with the team score being 95, Karun was surprised by a bouncer from Brydon Carse and was caught in the slips, getting out for 31 runs.
Captain Shubman walked in right before the session ended. The second session started with the Gill-Jaiswal duo taking the score past the 100-run mark and scoring some very quick runs.
In the 33rd over came another massive shout from the England Cricket Team for LBW, this time for Gill, but DRS saved India for the third time on the day, as it was concluded that his bat hit the ball before the pad. And just like that, the score went past 150.
But a wicket was near, and English captain Ben Stokes was the one to bring it. In the 46th over, Stokes bowled a ball a little wider, which edged Yashasvi Jaiswal’s bat and was caught by the wicketkeeper. The Indian opener departed for 87, close to his second ton in England.
Then came Rishabh Pant, the hero of the first Test and the man who scored two hundreds in one match. This brought an end to the second session.
In the third and final session of the day, Rishabh and Gill took India past 200 runs, while Shubman reached his 50. But this was not Pant’s day, as he looked to slog Shoaib Bashir over long on but was caught in the deep for 25.
This wicket triggered what could have been a collapse, as soon after, Nitish Kumar Reddy, who replaced Shardul Thakur in this game, was bowled for a duck when he misjudged a delivery by Woakes that was coming in. Reddy left the ball and was bowled for one. The score was now 211/5.
It was now time to mount a rescue for the Indian Cricket Team. That is exactly what captain Shubman Gill and veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja did. The two men took the attack back to the English bowling unit and scored some fast runs towards the end of the day. Gill, who was playing cautiously for the entire day, quickly raced into the 90s and then scored his second Test 100 as a captain in only his second match.
At the very end of the day’s play, Jadeja was nearly caught between the slips and the gully, but the ball raced to the boundary instead. And that is how Day One of the 2nd England vs India Test match ended, with the Men in Blue standing tall at 310/5, Gill batting at 114 while Jadeja was at 41.
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