India v England, 1st Test, Day 2: 5 Talking Points

At stumps on the second day’s play, the Indians were on a streak of letting England away into scoring a massive score in excess of 500 runs. However, in spite of this, the Indians managed to claw their way back into the grand scheme of things by virtue of the fact that the openers remained unbeaten on the first day’s play. Ben Stokes was the star of the show when he became the third centurion in the England innings as the Brits now have a lead in excess of 450 runs. In a nutshell, it was the bowlers who had an off day. Here are five talking points from the recently concluded day.

1. Ben Stokes makes Indian bowlers grovel

As if to illustrate the point made previously, Ben Stokes began to make life supremely difficult for the Indian bowlers as he smashed the ball around the park at will. In addition, his job was made even more difficult when he began to smash the ball to different parts of the stadium. Moreover, he was dropped by Wriddhiman Saha on two occasions apart from the fact that he was dropped by Virat Kohli. The cat with nine lives was eventually snapped up by Umesh Yadav, but, only after he had slammed 128 supremely important runs.

2. Bairstow and Ansari play second-fiddle

In the first and second sessions of play, Ben Stokes was joined by Jonny Bairstow and Zafar Ansari who impressed with some simply incredible batting acumen. Bairstow has been one of the most impressive batsmen in recent times for England and has also been the highest run-getter in Test matches this calendar year. He impressed with a quickfire 46 including five boundaries and 2 massive sixes. Zafar Ansari also then went on to smash 32 runs as the Brits piled on the runs.

3. Ravi Jadeja finds solace in bowling to the tail

Ravindra Jadeja has not had it easy in spite of the fact that the Indians are playing in his home ground in Saurashtra. The southpaw was the first to yield a wicket for the Indians on the first day’s play and was back at it again when he removed the dangerous pair of Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid. These two are more than capable of adding massive runs to the total but, the fact of the matter remained that there was certainly a rejuvenated on the second day’s play.

4. England amass massive first-innings total

As England has done in recent Test series, they have managed to impress with some phenomenal batting. In fact, their tour of Bangladesh, where they were made to face a flurry of spinners ensured that they were completely prepared and well-drilled for the series. Needless to say, the Brits smashed 537 runs. England were also inadvertently aided and abetted by the Indian fielders who dropped catches at will and helped the Britons to a massive score.

5. Vijay and Gambhir hold the fort strong

When Murali Vijay and Gautam Gambhir came out to bat in the second innings, they stood in front of a wall worth 537 runs that most certainly daunted them, to say the least. Vijay and Gambhir however, began to stroke the ball the way they knew best where they managed to hold onto their wickets in spite of the massive onslaughts from the likes of Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad. Zafar Ansari and Adil Rashid then came on in a bid to take a wicket but were not able to do so at the close of play.