Twitter Reactions: Joe Root and Dom Sibley floor India on Day 1 of Chennai Test

After the highs of the Australia tour, Team India took the field at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in the first Test against England hoping to continue the good days. They were jolted with an injury to Axar Patel on the eve of the game who looked set for his Test debut. To make things worse for the hosts, England won the toss and opted to bat on what looked like a flat pitch at the Chepauk.

And what transpired on the field for the whole day was least expected by the Indian fans. The openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley added 63 runs first and applied themselves. Just when one felt that the tourists will go unscathed to lunch, Burns tried an overambitious off Ravi Ashwin only to be caught by the wicketkeeper, Rishabh Pant. Jasprit Bumrah then pinned Daniel Lawrence in front of the stumps as England went 63/2 at lunch.

Their best batsman and skipper Joe Root and a set batsman in Sibley were in the middle then and they literally didn’t allow India an inch for the rest of the day. There was a lot of talk around Root’s form in Sri Lanka and the 30-year-old showed his knocks in the island nation weren’t a fluke. He looked assured against the spinners and swept only when necessary churning out easy runs.

During the post-lunch session, there was a period when India kept a lid on the run-scoring and at one stage, it felt as if something will happen. Sibley, especially, was struggling to get going but he was prepared to grind out and was eventually rewarded for his hard work.

Joe Root and Sibley put pressure on inexperienced Indian bowlers

Both the batsmen did a commendable job in not letting India’s inexperienced bowlers, Shahbaz Nadeem and Washington Sundar, settle and attacked them with aplomb. There were a couple of moments when Root top-edged while sweeping but apart from that, he looked a class apart unfurling some of the top-notch strokes during his stay in the middle.

In the process, he also got to his 20th Test ton and third in a row in the format and was elated when he got to the mark. Root knows the importance of the innings as it has now set the tone for the rest of the series. At the other end, Sibley looked resolute in his defence and whenever the Indian bowlers, faltered in their lines, he made sure that runs came.

It turned out to be a long day for India who tried hard to pick up a wicket but the credit should be given to England for batting so well. The hosts didn’t field well either as they leaked quite a few runs in the outfield and there was also an overthrow to deal with. Just when it seemed that England will end the day two down itself, Jasprit Bumrah brought back the smiles on his teammates’ faces with a corker of delivery to Sibley.

In the last over of the day, Bumrah sent down a brilliant yorker to take the batsman by surprise and pinned him in front of the stumps. England ended the day on 263/3 after 89.3 overs with Root unbeaten on 128 runs while Sibley got 87 before getting out.

The first session of the second day will be crucial for India if they are hoping to make a comeback in this game. They will have to restrict the opposition to as few as possible. England, on the other hand, will be keen on batting only once and then put India under pressure when the pitch opens up from the third day.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: