India vs England: Rishabh Pant fails to take a catch off Jasprit Bumrah's first ball on Day 1

India and England are up against each other in the highly-anticipated first Test of the four-match series at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. While for the hosts, Shahbaz Nadeem makes his debut and Ishant Sharma and skipper Virat Kohli are back in the Playing XI, England sees the return of Rory Burns, Jofra Archer, and Ben Stokes after a much-needed break.

The much-awaited fixture commenced with Joe Root winning the toss and electing to bat first. While Ishant Sharma opened the attack for India, Rory Burns and Dominic Sibley are the opening batsmen for the visiting nation. Bowling the second over of the day, pace sensation Jasprit Bumrah weaved magic from his first delivery itself as he had almost picked the wicket of Burns.

Bumrah started the day with a length delivery and Burns failed to properly read the ball. As a result, the ball touched the bat and went to the right of the wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. Pant dived to his right to complete the catch but the ball came really low and hit the fingertips of the young keeper. Though it was a difficult catch, Pant gave a lifeline to the opening batsman Rory Burns and denied India an early breakthrough.

However, this mistake didn’t prove to be very costly for the home team as Burns gifted his wicket to the opposition on the delivery of Ravichandran Ashwin while playing at 33 runs off 60 deliveries. Rishabh Pant also redeemed himself as he made no mistakes in completing the catch this time to send the batsman back to the pavilion.

India vs England series to decide the finalists of World Test Championship

The four-match Test series between India and England is crucial for all three nations including India, Australia, and England as it will decide the second finalist of the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship, who will lock horns against New Zealand in the final at the Lord’s in June 2021.

India needs to win the marquee series by a margin of at least 2-1 or 2-0. However, if India wins the series by a margin of 1-0, or even draw the series against England, Australia will qualify for the summit clash. For England, they need to be at their fluent best to beat India by a margin of 3-1/3-0/4-0 to qualify for the final.