India vs England: Joe Root takes stunning one-handed diving catch to send back Ajinkya Rahane

Joe Root just cannot do anything wrong at the moment. Everything that the England skipper is touching at present is turning into gold. Last month, he played knocks of 228 and 186 to help England whitewash Sri Lanka in a two-match Test series. And he has started in a similar manner in India. The right-handed batsman scored yet another double century, playing a sublime knock of 218 to put his team on top in the ongoing first Test in Chennai.

He batted for more than nine hours to guide England to a huge total of 578. And as if the double century was not enough, he also took a stunning catch to send back Ajinkya Rahane. Playing his 100th Test, Root came up with an incredible diving effort to send back the India vice-captain. In the 27th over of India’s innings bowled by Dom Bess, Rahane decided to dance down the track and drive the ball in order to not let the ball spin.

Rahane succeeded in his first plan as he did not let the ball bounce. The placement was decent too as he drove the ball to the left of Root. At first, it looked like the ball would safely go past Root but the England star had some other plans. He made a full-length dive to his left and caught the ball with one hand to send back Rahane.

Here is a clip of the stunner from Joe Root:

Joe Root’s catch to remove Ajinkya Rahane is a stunner.#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/0hf0Fo6mRR

— Nic Savage (@nic_savage1) February 7, 2021

England on top

Talking about the game, England are firmly in command of the proceedings in Chennai. The visitors have piled up a mammoth total of 578 in the first innings. Starting day three on 555 for 8, the visitors added 23 more runs to their overnight score for the loss of two wickets. The bowlers then put them in the driver’s seat by taking four wickets in quick succession.

Jofra Archer sent back Rohit Sharma (6) and Shubman Gill (29) cheaply to give England a solid start with the ball. Spinner Dom Bess then accounted for the huge wickets of Virat Kohli (11) and Ajinkya Rahane (1) to leave India reeling on 73 for 4. At the time of compiling this report, India were on 159 for 4 with Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant fighting it out with the bat in the middle.