Shubman Gill produced the goods for the second Test in a row as India battled hard to end day one at Edgbaston in a strong position.
After Chris Woakes and Shoaib Bashir combined to take two quick wickets after the tea break, India were looking shaky at 211-5 only for an unbeaten 99 run partnership between the captain and Ravindra Jadeja got them through to stumps 310-5.
It’s advantage India at stumps on day one with Gill knocking an unbeaten 114GettyBut they will know having lost in Leeds despite having three first innings centurions that they still have a lot of work to do to put England under pressure.
Unlike at Headingley there were few murmurs when Ben Stokes decided to bowl first on a pitch that looked benign and true and suggested a lack of pace.
The toss also brought news about Jasprit Bumrah’s potential exclusion. With Lord’s in mind the decision was made to rest India’s premier bowler with Akash Deep, who’d had an impressive debut against England in 2024 preferred.
In total, India made three changes from their painful defeat in the first Test with off spinner Washington Sundar coming in alongside Nitish Kumar Reddy in place of Shardul Thakur and Sai Sudharsen.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul walked out to bat with the sun just about breaking through the clouds and England unchanged.
Unlike in the previous game England’s new ball bowlers were on the mark straight away with both Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse bowling challenging lines and lengths.
There were two huge unsuccessful LBW appeals turned down on field which were sent upstairs with the ball shown to be clipping off stumps both times but without enough of the ball to overturn the onfield call.
Woakes did make the early breakthrough after Rahul (2), one of four Indian batters to register a century in the 1st Test, inside edging a regulation length ball onto his stumps.
With Sudharsen out of the side, Karun Nair was pushed up the order to number three and he looked in good touch, cover-driving his way to double figures. However he became the second wicket to fall in the morning, surprised by a touch more bounce he edged Carse into the slips for 31.
Gill, who cut an embattled figure late on day five at Leeds reached his second score of 50+ in three innings with a lofted cover drive for four from Bashir.
Woakes was England’s most productive bowler on day one with two wickets for 59 runs in 21 oversGettyThe captain knew the importance of his wicket but did the vice-captain? Rishabh Pant (25) had hit Bashir for one six over mid-wicket in the afternoon session, and seemed to get frustrated with the pace of his and India’s innings.
With fielders back on the boundary decided to try and drag a delivery on middle stump from the same bowler where Zak Crawley took a good diving two handed catch above his head.
It was the fourth dismissal for Bashir in the series with all four wickets coming from catches in the deep.
That brought Reddy to the crease and his stay was to be a short one as he shouldered arms to a delivery from Woakes bowled wide of the crease that came in to take off stump.
India, like Reddy’s stumps were rattled, but the experience of Jadeja and class of Gill was enough to see them through to fight another day.
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