ENG vs IND:
At stumps, England were 53 for 3 in response to India’s 191, having lost openers Rory Burns (5) and Haseeb Hameed (0) to the extra pace and bounce generated by Bumrah (6-2-15-2).
It was a day for the comeback men both for India and England as Shardul Thakur salvaged a sinking Indian innings blasting 57 runs off just 36 balls to help them get to 191. After the visitors were reeling at 127/7 with all their main batsmen back in the shed.
And for England, it was Chris Woakes taking four wickets in the innings and played a major part in England bowling the opposition out early.
Umesh Yadav (6-1-15-1) then bowled an off-cutter in his second spell to breach in-form Joe Root (21)’s defence which helped the visitors end the day on a high note.
That Indian shoulders didn’t droop after being reduced to 127 for 7 was all because of man playing only his fourth Test.
Justifying his tag as bowling all-rounder, Shardul smashed 57 off 36 balls and added 63 for eighth wicket with Umesh. To take the total closer to 200 which had looked improbable after another “brain fade” dismissal from Rishabh Pant.
ENG vs IND: England lose early wickets
Anderson bowled one of his classic “in-out” (swinging in and shaping out) delivery to send Pujara back. Rahane was Overton’s victim with Moeen Ali not even required to bowl a single over.
With Ravichandran Ashwin being sidelined for the fourth time. The logic of playing Ravindra Jadeja as a batting all-rounder has partially backfired after team management promoted him to No 5 ahead of Rahane and the move flopped big time.
For Rahane, the time is simply running out after yet another failure. The fact that he needed to be hid behind Jadeja under pretence of having a left-right combination, said it all.
The skipper was the only one among the three middle-order big guns who looked like batting with some purpose.
There were flowing cover drives, a picturesque on-drive but when Robinson came back for his post-lunch spell and bowled one on the length which climbed as well as moved inward forcing Kohli to close the bat face for a shot towards mid-wicket.
But all it did was to clip the outside edge into Bairstow’s gloves.