India v England, 1st Test, Day 1 Review: Root and Ali put England in firm position

Joe Root solidified his stature of being an all-season batsman for England today after he struck fluent 124 runs knock to help England post 311 for 4 at the end of day one of the series opener against India at the SCA Stadium, Rajkot. Moeen Ali also played his part and was the second best English batsman today, finishing just one run short of his 4th Test century.

Batting with utmost ease, Root combined with left-hander Ali and shoved India to the corner, knitting a 179 runs partnership for the 5th wicket to put England in a comfortable position. As the people around the world including India remained hooked to the TV following the US elections results, Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli lost his first toss in India after Alastair Cook called it right and decided to bat first on a sporting looking wicket.

Things began on a jittery note for England as luck favoured the visitors greatly. But, despite failing to take the early opportunities, Indians recovered and claimed three wickets in the first session. Two catches were dropped in the first two overs – one in Shami’s opening over and the second in the following over by Yadav.

On both the occasions, it was Cook at the batting end. He looked scratchy and constantly edged the ball while trying to fiddle outside the off stump. The result was that his stay in the middle wasn’t prolonged and was dismissed for just 21 runs.

Hameed was sort of more comfortable. Batting like an old-fashioned opener, he seemed to be seeing the ball pretty well, left the one outside off in style and was getting boundaries at regular intervals. The right-hander coped with varied bounce better that Cook. He played to his reputation and opted for a defensive approach, cleaning blocking every ball whenever he lunged forward against the spin of Ashwin and Jadeja.

Just like his skipper, he also enjoyed his slice of luck after Kohli, who rarely drops anything, dropped a low catch at slips. He looked very impressive and Michael Atherton in the commentary box was fairly convinced that he will place a good knock until, in the 27th over, Ashwin got better of him and made his depart leg before wicket. Duckett had a flashy start but Ashwin took care of him and sent him back just before Lunch.

But, a massive turnaround was waiting to happen in the following session. After stuttering in the first session, England had two men who enjoyed the Indian bowling and added runs to the scoreboard with ease. The next couple of hours belonged to England as Root and Ali added double amount of runs that the visitors scored in the opening session without any loss of wickets.

Despite coming in after the fall of 3 wickets, Root and Ali had little to worry. There was good indication that both played without scoreboard pressure. The Indian spinners who looked on top crashed onto the immovable English duo and could not ask any questions to Root and Ali. The pitch was not running like any normal Indian fans would expect and Root and Ali took good advantage. By the time the session came to an end Root had smoothly reached to 97 and Ali not out on 48.

Crowd had become proactive and skipper Kohli was seen in deep thinking mode. To add to the issues India were facing, Mohammad Shami suffered a hamstring issue just before tea. However, the wait for a wicket finally ended after Yadav broke through for India in a rather controversial manner with the wicket of Root.

Brief Score:

England: 311/4 (Joe Root 124, Moeen Ali 99; Ravichandran Ashwin 2/108)