Right-handed batters Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root have steadied the ship for England after losing three quick wickets and take the side to 108/3 in 28 overs at lunch on day one of the first Test against India at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday.
It was an eventful morning session where the vociferous crowd was treated to twists and turns. England stayed true to their Bazball way of playing the game via the 55-run opening partnership between Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley.
But Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja came in to take three wickets in 21 balls. Bairstow and Root led the repair job for England via the 48-run partnership for the fourth wicket, while remaining unbeaten on 32 and 18 respectively.
Electing to bat first, Crawley and Duckett played some cracking shots off the middle of the bat to fetch boundaries at a fast rate, especially whenever Mohammed Siraj pitched it full, to score 41 in the first eight balls. Duckett also took the attack initially to Jadeja, scooping and sweeping him to take two fours.
But India pulled back things quickly – Ashwin got one to come in straight after pitching and rapped Duckett on the front pad. Replays showed the ball clipping top of leg-stump, as India made their breakthrough while Duckett burnt a review.
Jadeja then got one to turn in and take a jittery Ollie Pope’s outside edge on a hard push to captain Rohit Sharma at first slip. After Root survived an lbw review while trying to lap sweep off Jadeja, Ashwin had his second scalp of the session when Crawley chipped a drive to mid-off, who ran forward to take a low catch.
Bairstow looked comfortable in hitting five boundaries off Ashwin and Jadeja, getting majority of his runs square of the wicket through the off-side. Root is also looking solid from the other after the initial hesitation, as England finished the morning session with a run-rate of 3.86.
Brief Scores: England 108/3 in 28 overs (Ben Duckett 35; Jonny Bairstow 32 not out; Ravichandran Ashwin 2-20, Ravindra Jadeja 1-34) against India