India in the box seat after day 1 in Hyderabad
India v England, 25th January 2024.
England 246 all out
India 119–1 (trail by 127)
It was long past the witching hour of midnight when, after penning my songs of written praise for my beloved Reds of Liverpool Football Club reaching the first Wembley cup final of the English football season, that I retreated to bed beneath the fullest and brightest of moons and eagerly awaiting the first day of England’s daunting new year tour of India. Together with the Ashes tours of Australia every four years, India ranks as high on the difficulty scale of being triumphant and a much changed England team were also dealt the twin blows of losing the immediate services of Shoaib Bashir due to visa issues as well as the mightily impressive Harry Brook for undisclosed family issues. Whilst Brook may not return to the tour, Bashir is expected to be available for selection from the second Test Match onward, which cannot be said for Indian crowd darling Virat Kohli who, like Harry Brook, has withdrawn from at least the first two Test Matches and like Brook once more, uncertainty reigns as to whether he will feature in this series at all.
With England much changed, India can also lay a similar claim but home conditions favour them as well as the leadership of their talismanic captain Rohit Sharma and the simple and honest facts that the team by team match-ups favour them considerably. Whilst there may not be much to split the respective opening batting partnerships of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal for the home side and Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett for the visitors, I fear that if Yorkshire’s finest Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow fail with the bat they’ll be eclipsed by the Indian middle order of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer. But the largest fears of all reside in the huge discrepancy between India’s highly experienced and brilliant spin bowling attack of Ravi Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin (aided and abetted by Axar Patel) and England’s spin bowling options of Jack Leach, 19 year old Rehan Ahmed, debutant Tom Hartley and the always “golden arm” from the part-time spin of Joe Root.
So with less than 90 minutes of restful sleep I awoke at 3.30am for the first time of many in the 6 cricketing weeks that will follow, stretching into early March and the ending of this tour, and a 5 Test Match series in which I do not foresee a drawn match and whilst my heart hopes for a tight and valiant 3–2 series defeat for England, I fear 4–1 or, whisper it, even worse. But irrational hope springs eternal and we have plenty of time ahead for more reasoned sporting realism, and so here is the session by session breakdown of the opening day of this Hyderabad Test Match.
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Act One: “And it all started so well”
Although in a half asleep, half awake state, I was immediately struck by the paucity in build up from the usually excellent TNT Sports here in the UK. Where normally they have a panel of ex England cricketers both “in country” and in a UK studio, now they have nothing more than a distant colour commentary voice and the expected build up was next to non-existent. Being experienced in such matters I therefore turned to the tried and tested Fox Sports of Australia who were rather aptly also showing the first day’s play from the second Test Match between their home nation and the touring West Indian team and a series I’ve also been watching, together with their cricketing tussle with Pakistan, since the turn of the year. I’ve been rather spoiled by Fox Sports Australia and their superior channel dedication to cricket for some years now and whilst readying myself for the toss from Hyderabad and nestling beneath a warming pile of duvets to beat away the cold of an English winter, I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself that I was reliant upon a “feed” of the Test Match from the sunshine of an Indian summer from the early afternoon sunshine from Brisbane in Australia, and a Day/Night Test Match that ran exactly concurrently with the morning’s action from Hyderabad I was watching at 4am on a bitterly cold English morning and under the fullest and brightest of moons!
So much for all that.
England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and immediately announced his team would have first dibs with the bat, and for 45 or so minutes, the little and large opening partnership of Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley cajoled and caressed a quick fire 50 run partnership from the fast bowling of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. It was all rather plain sailing and the England innings had started so well and in a bright and breezy, free scoring fashion.
Whilst England never collapsed on their way to an eventual all out total of 246 they did struggle from hereon in and the pattern was set either side of the first hour’s drinks break, the losing of wickets in clusters and the establishing of batting partnerships that blossomed but frustratingly never fully bloomed. Ben Duckett fell for an entertaining run-a-ball 35 runs on the cusp of the hourly break before vice-captain Ollie Pope looked badly out of form as he, in the cricketing vernacular, “scratched around” before falling to a sharp catch at slip from Rohit Sharma off the bowling of Ravi Jadeja for just 1 run and from just the 4th ball after the resumption of play. Zak Crawley soon followed for 20 and with his wicket falling to fellow spin bowler Ravi Ashwin, another pattern for the England innings had been set with all 3 wickets falling to the spinning partnership of Jadeja and Ashwin and by the end of the innings, they’d account for 6 of the 10 wickets to fall.
Such matters were for the future at this stage and under the experienced Yorkshire pair of former captain Joe Root (18 not out) and Jonny Bairstow (32 not out), England reached the Lunch Break on 108–3.
Honours even after 2 hours of play.
Act Two: “It’s too good. It’s too good. It’s too good!”
From 108–3 at Lunch, England retreated in rather poorer shape at the Tea Break at 215–8 and wholly indebted to yet another patient, battling innings from skipper Ben Stokes. Before he rested his bat at the break in play on 43 not out, he’d watched the Yorkshire pair of Bairstow and Root fall quickly in the afternoon session with Bairstow brilliantly bowled by a gem of a spinning delivery from Axar Patel after adding just 5 runs to his pre-Lunch total of 32 and Root adding 11 before playing arguably the only reckless shot of the innings as he swept a spinning delivery from Jadeja into the grateful hands of Jasprit Bumrah. Although both Rehan Ahmed (13) and debutant Tom Hartley (23) would admirably assist Ben Stokes in cameo batting partnerships throughout the afternoon session, the albeit painful highlight fell to Ben Foakes when, on the cusp of the mid-session break for drinks, he was brilliantly dismissed by Axar Patel in a delivery that spun viciously before snagging the edge of his bat and into the hands of wicket-keeper Srikar Bharat that saw ex England captain Kevin Pietersen enthusing on TV commentary “It’s too good. It’s too good. It’s too good!”.
And it was.
And England were teetering on the brink of collapse.
Act Three: Jaiswal puts England to the sword
That England didn’t collapse was due almost entirely to captain Ben Stokes who took his not out total of 43 pre the Tea Break to a final 70 and in doing so received a cricketing “life” straight after the resumption of play, reached his half century with a towering boundary 6 from 69 total balls received before receiving an unplayable delivery from Jasprit Bumrah that pitched around leg stump before jagging viciously off the wicket, pinging back his middle stump and dismantling his “castle” of stumps behind him. Stokes looked in astonishment at both the wicket and at Bumrah before both players shared a wry smile at both the delivery itself and the reaction it received from the wicket, and England, verging on collapse at 155–7, had made an almost par total of 246 all out. It was still 30 runs short but at least 30 runs more than was feared had Stokes not batted his way to his usual heroics.
With every run now cheered heartily by a Hyderabad crowd who’d grown steadily in attendance throughout the day, captain Rohit Sharma played rather a backseat role to his junior opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal as the 22 year old scored the vast majority of their dominating first wicket stand of 80 before Sharma, a batsman I greatly admire, “holed out” to his opposite number Stokes for a fine running catch off the bowling of Jack Leach. Joined now by Shubman Gill through to the end of play “stumps”, whilst Gill helped himself to a comfortable and carefree 13 runs, Jaiswal crashed his way to an end of play total of 76 not out from just 70 balls received and his team to an incredibly commanding overnight total of 119–1 to trail England after day 1 by just 127 runs.
So after an even first session the honours fall fairly and squarely to the hosts after day 1 and I’m already fearing the worst for an England team who battled gamely throughout a tough day, almost made a competitive par score, but are firmly behind on my judge’s scorecard. Early wickets tomorrow to restrict India to only parity on their first innings total is crucial as a lead for the home team will see an England victory a distant prospect as batting on days 3 and 4 on this wicket against the likes of Ravi Ashwin and Ravi Jadeja will not be any fun whatsoever!
Time will tell.
It always does.
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Peace to you all.