England’s tour of India started on Friday with the first Test match in Chennai. When the Indian team was selected, for a few, the exclusion of Kuldeep Yadav came as a surprise. Yadav who was considered to be a strong weapon for India in the spin department did not get a match in the Australia tour. He was one of the two members of the entire squad to not get featured with the other being Kartik Tyagi. Once again Yadav missed a call-up in India’s first Test match against England. In absence of injured Axar Patel, the Indian team management had to look for another spinner in Shahbaaz Nadeem. They chose to go with three finger-spinners despite having a wrist-spin option like Kuldeep Yadav in the set-up. In six Test matches, Kuldeep has 24 wickets to his name, including two five-wicket hauls. It’s time that Indian team management works on their plan regarding Yadav.
As far as the match is concerned, England, winning the toss decided to bat first captain Joe Root played a dominant innings to put England in the drivers’ seat. Rory Burns and Dom Sibley laid the foundation to create enough opportunity for the middle order to work on a good start. Burns and Sibley took time to settle down and gradually built the innings. However, it did not take much time for Ravichandran Ashwin to scalp a vulnerable Burns in the 24th over of the innings.
Burns was dismissed for a 60-ball 33 runs and unfortunately, within the next couple of overs Dan Lawrence was removed by Jasprit Bumrah. A searing delivery from Bumrah to remove the young batsman came as a hope for the Indian camp. Two consecutive blows in space of 11 balls seemed to have given a certain advantage to the hosts for the time being.
But Joe Root had another plan. The English captain playing his 100th Test brought back the solidity and made the Indian bowlers toil hard. He got an able ally at the non-striker’s end in Sibley who knew his job well. Sibley held it throughout, showed utmost determination, and gave the much-needed support to the skipper.
Root had no dilemma in choosing batting after winning the toss, and he proved why. Both went on to stitch a 200-run partnership together and the visitors got enough reason to cheer at the end of day one. Both recorded only the 14th instance of a visiting team putting on a 200-run partnership in the first innings of a Test match in India. Jasprit Bumrah, although managed to beat Sibley for 87 on the last ball of the day, Root remained unbeaten with a gritty 128*.
Jasprit Bumrah, playing his first Test match in India which is his 17th overall, proved his worth as always. He proved how venues do not matter when it comes to his ability to deliver on-time breakthroughs. Even in this match, on the very first day when his colleagues had quite a tough run, India needed Bumrah specials to get back on track. He gave two important and much-needed breakthroughs. India could take three wickets on day one and two of them were taken by Bumrah for 40 runs in 18.3 overs.
Root did not just score a century on his 100th Test match, he had scored a double-century in his 98th match and a hundred in his 99th one. He is the only batsman to have achieved such a unique feat so far. Joe Root became only the 9th batsman to have scored a hundred in his 100th Test match. Moreover, his numbers in the sub-continent have been really impressive.
In seven successive Tests in India Root has got at least one fifty-plus score. Javed Miandad is the only batsman who had done it eight times. In Asia, Root has smashed centuries in three consecutive Test matches and he is just the 8th batsman to do so. With Joe Root still in the middle, the Indian camp has still a lot to worry about.