Brilliant India grab control on opening day of Test series against England

In what turned out a perfect opening day in a high-profile away assignment for perhaps the first time ever for this Indian cricket team under Virat Kohli, the visiting side has created an opportunity of driving home the advantage very early in the first Test of the Pataudi Trophy against England on Thursday.

India are 162 runs behind from taking lead in the first innings against England after they skittled out the home team for a poor total of 183 on the opening day at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, with fast bowlers producing a fantastic performance to put their side on top.

The visiting team has put itself in a commanding position and if they manage to bat once and big, it can be said that a victory by heavy margin could be on the horizon provided only if India get to a score of anything around 350.

Jasprit Bumrah returned to his usual self, moving the ball dangerously on both sides of the wickets and making the batsmen doubt their very basic skills in a scintillating spell of 20.4-4-46-4, and he was well backed by the likes of Mohammad Shami (17-2-28-3), Shardul Thakur (13-3-41-2) and Mohammed Siraj (12-2-48-1).

It looked like India had played a huge gamble by not selecting their most successful spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and favoured Ravindra Jadeja instead, but the latter was required to bowl only three overs in the entire innings as the fast bowlers decimated a fragile and inferior English batting lineup with both precision and control with the ball.

Joe Root stood tall for England expectedly with what was his 10th half-century in Test cricket against India, as he leapfrogged his former captain Alastair Cook and the legendary Ken Barrington to score most 50s in the format against the Asian side. 

Root was fluent in his innings on Wednesday, scoring 64 from 108 balls with 11 boundaries but all of his other teammates cut a sorry figure against a relentless Indian bowling attack which gave them no room to breathe. 

Rory Burns was bamboozled with a delivery that came into him from Bumrah, which was only the fifth delivery of the series while those before this went away from him. Dom Sibley showed plenty of application and resolve in making 18 from 70 balls but he was done in by a delivery sprayed on his pads, which he thought of hitting on midwicket but KL Rahul snapped a sharp catch.

Zak Crawley finally got off to a start making 27 from 68 balls but some brilliant observational skills by India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant had him caught behind off a DRS review. This was the only wicket which went in the kitty of Siraj.

Root and Jonny Bairstow tried weathering the storm and added 72 runs for the fourth wicket but Shami struck twice on either sides of the tea break to reduce England from a position of control at 138/3 to 138/5.

Much to the horror of the home team which not long ago produced deplorable performances with the bat against India, the English team lost its last six wickets for only 45 runs while five of these fell for a total of 22 runs. 

Sam Curran, who was the difference between the two teams the last time they played in England in 2018, tried to launch a fightback with a calculated innings of 27 not out studded with one six and four boundaries while adding 23 for the last wicket, but Bumrah was just too good for the veteran Jimmy Anderson, cleaning him up to leave England with a total of 183 in the first innings. 

India had about an hour’s time to bat towards the end of the opening day, and the openers did a perfect job. Rahul, in company of Rohit Sharma, who  both reached 9 not out, did not allow England any breakthrough for 13 overs that they sent down.