India’s plight
The desperation of Kohli and Co for a dismissal led to India losing all three reviews an hour before tea—against Stokes, Root and Ollie Pope. That meant when a couple of close calls from Washington Sundar and Ishant Sharma were turned down by the umpire—jos Buttler’s clear nick was also turned down—in the last session, it only added to the frustration in the Indian camp.
Bumrah delivered yorkers and slower ones, Ishant got the ball to swing and angled in a few to Root’s discomfort while Ashwin kept going all day (he has bowled 50 overs in two days). Though the foot marks seemed to be producing variable bounce, breakthroughs were hard to come. Even Rohit Sharma rolled his arm over before tea.
India though were guilty of putting down chances. Ashwin dropped Stokes off his bowling to his right and the left-hander got another reprieve when Cheteshwar Pujara, leaping full stretch, could not hold on to the chance off Shahbaz Nadeem. Rohit dropped a sitter from Bess close to stumps.
Only in the last session, with Root falling leg before to Nadeem, and Ashwin trapping Pope did England batsmen look in any discomfort. A superb over from Ishant saw him rewarded for all the hard work. He got ball to reverse, hitting off-stump as Jos Buttler shaped to leave and cleaned up Jofra Archer the next ball. It left the fast bowler one short of the 300wicket mark.
India bowling coach Bharat Arun, before play on Day 2, said the pitch had “foxed” the hosts into believing it would help the spinners. And it was hard grind for the bowlers again.
The England dressing room was relishing it though. Root swept his way through the first session and had looked set to carry on till the end of the day. Stokes brought pressure on the bowlers in the morning while Root stuck to his scoring pace.
Despite batting in all six sessions in the heat and humidity, Root never hesitated to rotate the strike. As Stokes, playing his first Test in six months, went hammer and tongs at the spinners, Root waited for the right opportunities to score. He played well back or lunged forward against the spinners and counter-attacked with a variety of sweep shots.
The tactic bore Root results in Sri Lanka, and it has worked wonders in India as his 644 runs in the three Tests show.
While Stokes rode his luck to score 82, Root was a picture of calm in his chanceless knock. Though Ishant got the ball to reverse and Bumrah threw everything he had in his arsenal, nothing seemed to click on a slow pitch. The left-right combination added to the difficulty too, especially for the inexperienced Nadeem and Sundar.