Same old, same old.......
Your 2 best batsmen get in, they look to be in no trouble whatsoever and are on their way to match winning innings only to throw it away. It was so frustrating and yet so predictable - read here
Before I get on too much of a rant let's go back and consider all that has unfolded on the first day of the first Test.
Team Selection
The big question for both teams in the lead up to this Test has been how many spinners would they go for. Ultimately both England & India played 1 spinner each in Rashid and Ashwin respectively. For England it was somewhat surprising that the single spinner was Rashid and that they selected Sam Curran ahead of Jamie Porter. Time will tell if that was the right selection for England when India get to bat. I like Sam Curran, I've seen a lot of him while he plays for my home county Surrey. Despite having just turned 20 years old, he will not be phased by the big occasion, this is a kid who is ultra confident in his own abilities. My slight concern would be that he bowls around the 80-82mph mark - is that quick enough and does he have enough about him to knock over batsmen at this level? One thing that I'm sure will have counted for him is that he plays all is home matches at The Oval which is renowned as being the best batting surface in the country so the wickets he has taken in domestic cricket have been hard fought.
The big calls for India were to go with Hardik Pandya ahead of Ravi Jadeja and to drop Pujara with KL Rahul set to bat at number 3. To drop Pujara was brave but ultimately if he isn't in good form and you are a side like India with the luxury of having high quality back up players then it makes sense to pick KL Rahul. I'm not so sure about the selection of Pandya to bat at 7 and bowl a bit. For me he will have to score meaningful runs at 7 to justify his position as his bowling seems to lack penetration for the Test match arena. Jadeja would have provided more in that department and Ashwin is easily competent enough with the bat to move up to 7.
Report on the day's cricket
Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings got England off to a decent start after Root had opted for England to bat first.
Cook was the first man to go, bowled by Ashwin who had been brought into the attack after an erratic opening spell from Umesh Yadav. It was a fantastic delivery to an excellent player of spin. If you've only managed to watch the highlights of today's cricket then what you will probably have missed out on is the deliveries that Ashwin bowled before he dismissed Cook.
The first 4 deliveries bowled from around the wicket all pitched outside off-stump and generally went on with the arm. The delivery that dismissed Cook pitched on middle stump. Cook played it as if it would go on with the arm but it spun, missed his outside edge and clipped the top of off-stump. World class bowling from a world class spinner.
Keaton Jennings looked solid albeit that he was dropped on 9, another slip catch put down by Team India. I don't think that Jennings will ever be the type of player that is going to sell too many tickets but he looked effective in making 42 before he was bowled in fairly unfortunate circumstances with an inside edge going through his legs then spinning back to just clip the stumps and dislodge a bail.
Dawid Malan was next out, LBW despite his review, with the ball tracking showing that both the impact of the ball on pad and the predicted impact on the stumps being umpires call. England can't complain too much about that but they will be keen to see the umpires get their fingers up for similar LBW decisions when they bowl tomorrow. It was another failure for Malan and i'm not going to waste more time stating that I don't think he's good enough, his stats and performance today demonstrate that perfectly well.
Bairstow and Root then lead England's recover and the pair looked very comfortable in taking England's score to 216-3 before Root was needlessly run out for 80. This sparked a collapse as Bairstow dragged a wide Yadav delivery onto his stumps. Buttler was then out for a 2nd ball duck, LBW to a regulation off-break from Ashwin that he just walked in front of. Ben Stokes threatened briefly before he too joined in with another very soft dismissal, chipping the ball straight back to Ashwin. Rashid and Broad didn't last long and it will be down to Sam Curran who battled for an hour and a half for his 24 and last man Jimmy Anderson to try and get England up above 300, having finished the day on 285-9.
As for India's bowlers, I felt the opening pair of Yadav and Sharma were fairly poor. Yadav's line and length was wrong all day and the England top order were able to leave far too many deliveries. As for Sharma, he seems only capable of moving the ball in one direction these days (into the right hander and away from the left hander) which at this level makes him rather predictable. I also can't understand why he bowled his opening spell over the wicket to 2 left handers, poor decisions like this only further my frustration that England didn't make more runs. Ashwin bowled as well as an off-spinner is ever likely to bowl on the first day of a Test Match in England but really England gifted him wickets in the final session. I felt India's best and most threatening bowler was Shami whom I liked the look of during last year's Champion's Trophy over here. He moved the ball both ways and certainly in his opening couple of spells he bowled at a fairly good pace. He is one of those bowlers whose delivery just kisses the surface and then gathers pace on it's way through. He looked a little stiff towards the end of the day but I'm sure India's batsmen will be looking to allow him to put his feet up tomorrow.
Analysis of the day's cricket
If you're an England fan I can some it up in one word, sloppy.
Again it's the mentality that is all wrong with this England side. There will be those who say that Root and Bairstow were looking to be aggressive in their running and put the field under pressure. I've got no problem with that but ultimately this is Test match cricket, batsmen who are successful and go onto make big match winning runs value concentration, precision and playing the percentages. I haven't seen any player, baring Alistair Cook, who really looks like they believe that that is the way to build a Test innings.
For India this has been a dream day. 2 of their key players who have struggled in previous tours of England have had a massive impact on the game. Ravi Ashwin who took just 3 wickets on India's 2014 tour already has 4 this tour and having troubled England's batsmen in the sub-continent he has now reasserted the psychological edge. Similarly for Virat Kohli this tour represents a massive challenge of both his leadership and batting technique. Joe Root had goaded Kohli during the final ODI when he 'mic-dropped' his bat after scoring a second consecutive hundred. It was Kohli's brilliance in the field today that lead to Root's run out and he celebrated it by blowing a few kisses Root's way, simulating a 'mic-drop' himself and shouting some abuse at the England Captain as he left the field. For me it is pretty abhorrent and immature behaviour from both Root and Kohli and I would happy if the match referee and umpires got both sets of players together and made it clear to them that there is no place in the game of cricket for such actions. As it is though it is very much 1-0 to Kohli in the personal battle between the 2 captains and if he and his side bat through tomorrow and well into Friday then it may well be 1-0 to India in the series as a whole.
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