England was once again dominated by spin bowling as they finished their first innings at 246 all out. With Captain Ben Stokes leading from the front with a sensational knock of 70 England would have thought their total was above par.
However, with India playing in front of a noisy Hyderabad crowd Yashavi Jaiswal attacked the England bowling and put the inexperienced England attack under pressure immediately as he finished 76* as India finished on 119/1, trailing England by 127 runs.
With the hype and build-up palpable the Hyderabad crowd were thoroughly entertained as England went attacking before being pegged back by the trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. The same trio that dismantled England in their last Tour of India were back at it again.
England fail to capitalise on positive start
After winning the toss Stokes made the decision to bat first on a turning surface. Stokes knew that batting would progressively get harder on this pitch as the game ventured on and most likely didn’t want his side batting last.
Openers Ben Duckett and Zach Crawley came out to bat and immediately attacked Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj as the pair raced to fifty off ten overs. Indian captain immediately turned to Ashwin his premier spinner and the bowler struck trapping Duckett LBW.
The joy continued for India as Jadeja dismissed Ollie Pope and Crawley was outdone by Ashwin again. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow built a partnership to steady the innings but once they were dismissed England was in dire trouble.
Some late hitting from Ben Stokes and some crucial partnerships with the lower order dragged England to 246.
Ben Stokes the saviour once again
With England’s back against the wall at 155/7 Ben Stokes stood up again and made a crucial innings to drag his side to a respectable score. He was helped by debutant Tom Hartley who scored 23 runs and Mark Wood who scored 11 as Stokes cut loose at the other end.
It has become the norm for whenever England is in a spot of bother Stokes is the man to take charge and stem the flow of runs. He has done it before for England and on both those occasions won World Cups for England both in 2019 and 2022.
Stokes started attentively something you wouldn’t associate with his batting. The Durham man was on a rampage as he was finally bowled by a Bumrah delivery that swung back into the stumps after smashing Jadeja for consecutive sixes. He did survive a reprieve though as wicketkeeper K.S Bharat dropped England’s captain when he was on 44.
Jaiswal targets debutant Tom Hartley
Any cricket player making their test debut would say the first ball is a tone-setter. For Tom Hartley, his first ball in Test Match cricket was smashed for six by Jaiswal as the Indian opener began to attack the spinner throughout his spell. Hartley finished the day 0-63 off seven overs.
Loose deliveries helped Jaiswal as Hartley bowled a series of full and half-volleys as the opener smashed him to all corners of the ground. He brought up his half-century off just 47 deliveries as India raced to 100-1.
Hartley’s selection in the Touring squad was questioned beforehand as the Lancashire player has only played twenty first-class games in his entire career. Others questioned the surprise omission of Liam Dawson a player who hasn’t featured for England since 2018 and has played over 150 County games for Hampshire.
England needs to fight back on Day 2
With England defending a small total like this they will need early wickets to put this Indian team under any pressure. With players such as KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer left to bat India has a deep batting line-up with Axar Patel coming to bat at nine England needs their spinners to take advantage of the surface in Hyderabad.
Stokes will be hoping the inexperience of Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley doesn’t come back to haunt his side as they look for inspiration. The England captain will be happy with Jack Leach as he dismissed Rohit Sharma and hopes England can continue chipping away at this extended Indian batting line-up.
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