Indian cricket team exhibited a fine piece of batting on the first day of the Nottingham test on Saturday. After losing 6 wickets in the entire day, the visitors posted 307 by the day end. Debutant Rishabh Pant remained unbeaten at 22 and will be joined by Ashwin on Sunday.
They tumbled in the first session and lost three men at a score of 82. However, the Indian skipper and his deputy changed the face of the match completely in the second and as they went on to stitch a partnership of 159 runs before Rahane was removed by Broad on 81 which was, surprisingly, it was his highest score in Test cricket in the last one year.
After Rahane’s dismissal, Kohli stood strong with Pandya and added another 38 runs for the 5th wicket. He was rooting for his second century in this series but Adil Rashid ruled him out with one of turning delivery which was moving away from the wicket.
The Indian captain, unfortunately, lost his wicket on 97 and India were reduced to 279/5.
Now came the debutant wicketkeeper-batsman, Rishab Pant and showcased some fearless batting on the English soil. He made his debut memorable as he opened his account with a massive six off Rashid’s delivery which was also the 2nd six hit by an India in this series so far.
The last man India lost on day 1 was Hardik Pandya. In the last delivery of the 87th over, he nicked the ball which safely landed in Buttler’s hand who was fielding at the second slip.
The commendable second session
Both the Indian captain and vice-captain anchored the innings like never before. Kohli came out of his back pain and smashed his 17th fifty.
On the other hand, Rahane proved his mettle by getting a 50 plus score after a span of 1 year and 15 days. He got his 13th test fifty in style as he smashed a superb boundary to reach this feat.
Moreover, for the first time in the series, a partnership of 100 plus runs has been stitched for any wicket. The English bowlers kept searching for another wicket but the pair of Kohli and Rahane made them toil hard.
The break was taken after India scored 189/3.
The tumbling first session
After a terrible performance in the second Test at Lord’s, the Indian batsmen looked much confident against the English bowling attack. The opening duo of Shikar Dhawan and KL Rahul gave a good start to the inning. The pair exhibited some patient batting and went in to add 60 runs for the opening wicket before Chris Woakes drew the first blood.
Dhawan lost his wicket in the 19th over after scoring 35 runs off 65 deliveries. Soon Rahul had to return to the pavilion as he fell prey to Woakes’ bamboozling inswinger. On Pujara’s suggestion, he took a review which turned out be useless. Rahul scored 23 off 53 balls, including 4 boundaries.
Batting alongside captain Kohli, he almost had taken the control but a wrong pull shot and a perfect catch by Adil Rashid at the deep square-leg boundary cost India another wicket and hence, the lunch break was taken.
On the other hand, Woakes took all three wickets to push the Indians on backfoot yet again.
The toss
Earlier today, England won the toss and invited India to bat first in the third Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.
0-2 down and fighting to stay alive in the five-match series, the visitors have made three changes. As expected Delhi wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant is making his Test debut. He replaces a struggling Dinesh Karthik, who had two ducks in four innings and wasn’t entirely convincing with the gloves too.
20-year old Pant was always in the reckoning for his three half-centuries in his for India A in the unofficial tri-series involving West Indies A and England Lions a month ago.
A fully fit Jasprit Bumrah has made a comeback into the side in place of Kuldeep Yadav, which means India have dropped the idea of playing two spinners. Shikhar Dhawan too came back into the side at the expense of Murali Vijay, meaning India will come out with its third different opening pair in as many Tests.
"We wanted to bat first. The surface looks really hard. Good grass cover. Good cricket wicket. Important to not worry in the first hour and be fresh, and to just go out there and express ourselves. Putting runs on the board on any wicket is important," said Indian captain Virat Kohli.
The pitch has big patches of green but they are very far from the bowling length. It is sure to assist the fast bowlers in the initial stage of the Test match but will ease out and turn into good wicket for batsmen too. All eyes will be on the weather after the role it played in the Toss. Fortunately for India, there is no forecast for rain for the first two days.
England, on the other hand, have made one change. Cleared of affray, all-rounder Ben Stokes comes back into the side in place of young Sam Curran, something which England skipper Joe Root termed as a very difficult call.
"Sam did well with the ball, but Stokes will be replacing him, it was a really tough call," said England captain Joe Root.
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
England (Playing XI): Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root(c), Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow(w), Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson