- The first Test match of the ongoing India-England series has been won quite comfortably by the home side, defeating the tourists by five wickets. True cricket lovers and connoisseurs would be feeling delighted with the even contest witnessed between the bat and the ball. More importantly, the Test lasted the entire five days, interspersed with spectacular performances from both sides. Team India was asked to bat by England after winning the toss. The visitors responded splendidly by notching up 471 runs in the first innings. Opener Yashaswi Jaiswal scored a magnificent century. Captain Shubhman Gill too scored a stylish century, on debut as the skipper of the side, and the brilliance of keeper-batter Rishabh Pant was on full display, scoring an entertaining 134 runs.
PC: NewsBytes
- England batters were not found wanting in the first innings, with Ollie Pope scoring a hundred and promising young talent Harry Brook getting out for an agonizing but chance-ridden 99 runs. Indian fielding was poor, with six catches getting dropped, including two of Pope. Indian bowling was led by none other than Jasprit Bumrah, who yet again took a five-fer, delivering whenever the captain threw the ball in his direction. Disappointingly, other bowlers failed to rise to the occasion, thereby making life easy for the English batters to score freely from the other end. Bumrah was the lone bowling warrior chugging along by picking up crucial wickets. But the pressure simply was not forthcoming from the other end, with bowlers leaking easy runs, allowing English batters respite.
PC: Mint
- If this continues in the remaining four Tests, Team India’s chances of putting up a formidable fight against the home team would be next to nothing. Mohammad Siraj was found to be inconsistent in line and length, hardly troubling the batters. Prasidh Krishna, too, was expensive, unable to contain the batter for a decent enough stretch. Batting allrounder Shardul Thakur was underutilized, whose innocuous bowling under helpful conditions simply lacked the bite to trouble seasoned Englishmen. Ravindra Jadeja was ineffective in both innings simply because the wicket lacked purchase for the left-hander. However, Team India could have piled on more runs in both innings, but the lower middle-order failed miserably to complement the top-order batters.
PC: India Today
- Some of the positive outcomes from the lost Test match for Team India must be the twin centuries of keeper-batter Rishabh Pant, the composed presence of the second-inning centurion KL Rahul, and the first-inning centurions Jaiswal and captain Gill. Bowlers always win the matches is an accepted wisdom in Test cricket. Here, Team India must find out who the bowlers are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Bumrah to deliver the goods. Unfortunately, the premier pace bowler is not expected to play in more than three Tests. Whoever steps in place of Bumrah during his absence will define which way the series is headed. Indications are ominous for Team India as the aggressive Team England appears all set to conquer the visitors hands down.
