Ben Stokes just makes things happen. When India just lost the wicket of KL Rahul after a brilliant 91-run opening stand, he got rid of debutant Sai Sudharsan for a duck with an unusual leg-side trap. When Yashavi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill threatened to bat England out of the Test, he produced an absolute peach of a delivery out of nowhere to beat the defence of Jaiswal batting on 101. But even he has his match and that is Rishabh Pant.

India’s newly-crowned vice-captain walked into the middle after Jaiswal fell for a brilliant 101. At 221 for 3, they were in a solid position, but Stokes was in the middle of a good spell; any leeway could hand England a footing. Pant’s first ball was a straight bat defence. In the next ball, he charged down the track and belted Stokes over his head for a boundary.
No pacer likes to be charged down the track and get hit in that manner, but Stokes, as unique as he is as a cricketer, was not angry or distraught by any means. In fact, he had a whole hearty laugh, almost as if he enjoyed it to a great extent.
The England captain even took a couple of steps towards Pant and exchanged a couple of friendly words. Notably, Stokes has been an open admirer of Pant. He even went on to state that Pant plays Bazball-style cricket in the Indian unit.
Stokes continued to bowl a testing spell to Pant, who did well not to get sucked into any rash shots. Stkes kept Pant honest by varying his lengths and pace. he even tried a couple of lethal bouncers and a slower one that almost hit trapped Pant in front of the stumps but the Indian keeper-batter survived.
Pant’s patient batting did not allow England to have any entry into the Test match as India continued to dominate proceedings. Captain Shubman Gill hit a sparkling century to become the fourth India captain after Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, and Virat Kohli to hit a century on their captaincy debut. This was Gill’s sixth Test century and his first one in a SENA country.
Gill and Pant brought up their century partnership as Pant nudged towards a half-century while India went past 300.
The foundation was laid by a solid opening partnership between Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. India did lose Rahul (42) and debutant Sai Sudharsan (0) in quick succession but Gill and Jaiswal’s 129-run partnership for the third wicket really put India in the driver’s seat.
Playing his first Test in England, Jaiswal hit a sublime century. It took a magical delivery from Stokes to stop him.