India vs England: James Anderson bowls a ripper to send Shubman Gill's off-stump for a walk

Team India is currently fighting it out in Chennai to save the first Test of the four-match series against England. They have been set a target of 420 and need to bat out the whole fifth day to draw the game. Having done it twice in Sydney and Brisbane (batting on the final day), many were backing India to fight it out. But things aren’t going their way at the moment with England bowling exceptionally well.

James Anderson has led the way for them in the first session after Jack Leach sent back Cheteshwar Pujara. The veteran pacer was introduced into the attack on the final day last among all the front line bowlers but it took him only two balls to strike with a beauty of a delivery.

Shubman Gill, who was batting on 50 at that point and was looking good, was at the receiving end. He had only reached the third half-century of his career in the previous over and things were indeed looking ominous for England. But James Anderson managed to generate reverse swing as the ball curled in significantly and to make things worse for Gill, it stayed low as well.

The batsman prodded forward to a good length ball but was late in closing the gap between the bat and pad. And it was enough for the ball to go past that and peg back his off-stump. It was an end of a good innings but wasn’t enough for India on the final day.

Here’s the video:

James Anderson 🤯 pic.twitter.com/fJFflBYg45

— Cricket’s great moments (@PitchedInLine) February 9, 2021

pic.twitter.com/JgQIhlAJ5E

— Simran (@CowCorner9) February 9, 2021

What if India lose this Test?

Things will get a little bit tricky for India in terms of the World Test Championship if they lose the Chennai Test. They need to win the four-match series by a certain margin to make it to the final of WTC and going 0-1 down will only put pressure on them. The second Test will also be played in Chennai while the last two matches of the series are scheduled to take place in Ahmedabad.