Kolkata: That three excellent sessions don’t win a Test was learnt the hard way when India lost seven wickets for 41 runs after Rishabh Pant scored his seventh Test hundred in the second day of the first Test at Headingley, Leeds on Saturday.
Jasprit Bumrah kept India in the hunt with three wickets, starting by bending the ball outrageously to send Zak Crawley back quickly, but Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope responded with an aggressive counterattack that saw them add 122 runs at nearly five runs per over.
Duckett was dropped twice before Bumrah finally snapped him up to end that threatening second-wicket stand. But Pope too was dropped and he used that lifeline to race to his ninth Test hundred, helping England chip away at India’s first innings score of 471 with authority.
It was Bumrah again who dismissed Joe Root ten minutes before stumps as England finished the day on a relatively strong 209/3 with Pope and Harry Brook unbeaten at the crease. It could have been four down had Bumrah not overstepped when Siraj caught Brook in the last over of the day but such has been the day for India.
It was an anticlimactic end to the proceedings considering the ominous cloud cover and the burst of drizzle that slightly delayed the start of England’s innings. Bumrah bowled like the skilled operator he is but neither Mohammed Siraj nor Prasidh Krishna could back him up enough, which meant India looked bereft of ideas whenever Bumrah was rested.
It shouldn’t have gone down like this but India’s decision to go with just one spinner is probably starting to hurt. Jadeja was brought on as early as the 18th over but the pitch was too good for England to be bothered by him. Shardul Thakur — India’s fifth bowling option — was introduced in the 40th over, and going by the three overs bowled (for 23 runs) by him, it would take something really special for him to get a breakthrough.
It begs the question whether India played it too safe by not picking Kuldeep Yadav. A wrist spinner can turn the ball pretty much on any surface and on hindsight it feels like India could have benefitted from including Yadav. Shubman Gill had boldly proclaimed that five bowlers were non-negotiable for him but the team selection and the way Jadeja and Thakur was used was no different from how Gill’s predecessors have gone about preserving India’s batting stock away from home.
Jadeja and Thakur scored 11 and 1 respectively, so it’s not as if India’s first innings gained massively from the decision. And since this was a rare overseas Test where India enjoyed a good batting start, it was all the more important to finish well. That too wasn’t achieved.
Bumrah though ensured India were in the hunt as early as the first over, squaring up Crawley with a ball that pitched on middle stump before seaming away to take his outer edge and fly to Karun Nair at first slip. Duckett could have been gone on 1 with a tough chance falling just short of gully before Pope’s edge flew through a vacant fourth slip. Bumrah then went around the wicket, forcing Duckett to cut him straight to Ravindra Jadeja at backward point, but he couldn’t hold on to it.
First ball after tea, Pope’s edge off Bumrah flew past second slip for a streaky four that saw him reach his fifty. A few overs later, Bumrah got Pope to steer a back of the length delivery but it resulted into a thick edge that Jaiswal nearly held on to at third slip. There was some semblance of relief in the form of Duckett’s dismissal, Bumrah finally pegging back his middle stump, but Root and Pope kept stealing singles and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking. Their unbeaten stand reaffirmed how good this pitch remains for batting, something India must be regretting after having England bowlers on the mat at 430/3.
Maintaining his imperious vigil, overnight batter Gill was showing no sign of weakness against an England bowling attack running out of ideas. Till Shoaib Bashir got a well-deserved breakthrough with a floated delivery that got Gill to leave his crease and play across its line. He got the toe end of the bat and Josh Tongue had no problem holding on to the catch at deep backward square leg. By then however, Pant had moved into his zone, cutting down the English bowling — especially Bashir — and cantering to a special hundred.
But little support from the other meant India were fast running out of options who could push the score past 500. Karun Nair’s incredible comeback lasted only four balls as Pope leapt full length to his left to pluck an uppish drive out of thin air.
Six runs later, Pant shouldered arms to an incoming delivery from Tongue and was trapped plumb in front. That expedited India’s downfall as neither Jadeja nor Thakur could put up a much-needed lower-order stand. Tongue ended with 4/86, with skipper Ben Stokes capping England’s turnaround with a praiseworthy 4/66, three of which were India’s top-five batters.