India collapse gives England control in 1st Test at Trent Bridge

India squandered the advantage that they had taken on the opening day of the first Test being played at Trent Bridge against England, when they suffered a mini collapse that saw the core of their batting line-up being dismissed for cheap on a rain-truncated second day.

The visiting team’s worst nightmare came alive after a strong start to the first session on the second day, which saw Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul stretching their opening partnership to 97 runs — the biggest for India since 2011 in England. 

Rohit, who had shown tremendous restraint and application against the moving ball throughout on the first day evening and in the second day morning, fell on the very first short ball which England delivered in the contest close to lunch break, which he played straight into the hands of the fine-leg fielder off Ollie Robinson.

Rohit batted extremely well for his 36 off 107 balls but the Indian opener as well as the management would be disappointed yet again for him to be falling in the score of 30s after having done all the hard work.

While India would have felt confident going into the lunch break after a robust start, little did they know that there was havoc awaiting on the other side of the lunch break.

James Anderson came to the party as he removed Cheteshwar Pujara for a poor score of 4 and recorded the biggest statement of the series yet by dismissing India’s batting mainstay and their captain Virat Kohli for a golden duck. 

Both of India’s No 3 and 4 were dismissed by the veteran England fast bowler, caught behind by Jos Buttler, as Anderson equalled former India captain Anil Kumble’s record of most wickets in Test cricket — 619.

If this was not enough, Ajinkya Rahane spent some extremely nervous moments at the crease in which he also survived a close run out chance. Rather than settling down, the India vice-captain continued to show unwanted eagerness to steal singles which eventually resulted in his dismissal for 5, which left India struggling at 105/3.

The matters could have been even more worse for India had Dom Sibley taken a chance at the second slip to dismissed Rahul, who was unbeaten on 57 of 151 deliveries — studded with nine boundaries — on his comeback innings in Test cricket.

This was when rain intervened the proceedings in Nottingham to deny England any further inroads on the second day, and India a chance to gather themselves and come out better with the bat on the third day, with a significant amount of job left to be done with the bat.

Having dismissed England for a paltry score of 183, India stood a strong chance of putting up a big total and burying their opponent under the scoreboard pressure. That said, even an at-par score of around 300 to 350 would have been handy given the brittleness and fragility of the English batting line-up.

But with the core of their batting — Pujara, Kohli and Rahane – being removed for a grand total of 9 runs between them, the job of erasing a 58-run deficit in the first innings and adding a crucial total in form of a first-innings lead is left to those who cannot be called specialist batsmen.

Rishabh Pant was out swinging his bat at almost everything but he remained unbeaten when play was called off on the second day, and to follow him are Ravindra Jadeja and a string of Indian bowlers who are not known for their contributions with the bat.