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Counter-attacking century highlights lack of extra seamer Bess struggles to back up Stokes and Anderson heroics
Rishabh Pant exposed England’s selection for this Test and their winter rotation policy as he played what is likely to be the defining innings of the match.
Ben Stokes flogged himself into the ground to bowl 20 overs in 41C, cooked on a cloudless day, but England’s lack of an extra seamer meant they ran out of steam in the face of Pant’s third Test hundred.
A 113-run stand with Washington Sundar for the seventh wicket propelled India to an 89-run lead, and at 294 for seven at the close of the second day, the Test was all but gone for England.
The effort level could not be faulted, led by Stokes and James Anderson, who plugged away tirelessly despite the lack of runs to defend and paucity of support.
England understandably picked Dom Bess after seeing prodigious turn in the two-day Test at the same ground, but he bowled poorly again, with too many full tosses, forcing Anderson and Stokes to keep drawing from the well.
England packed the batting and left themselves with a two-man pace attack due to a lack of options. Chris Woakes went home last week having not played a Test all winter, following Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler out of the tour.
All were promised breaks but Eoin Morgan will have a full strength squad for the one-day leg while the three went to Sri Lanka for a series England could have won without them. England picked Buttler for two Tests in Galle, just one in
India, a jumbling up of priorities. If Moeen had been available, he could have played ahead of Dan Lawrence and England could have picked an extra seamer, while Woakes offers all-round skills as a good player of spin.
It is a nuanced issue complicated by Covid-19 bubbles, Indian Premier League deals and a year of 17 Tests but, in the end, it has left England short of senior players in the toughest conditions of all; the sight of Stokes down on his haunches glugging water, totally spent in the final hour of play, summing up its effect. Somehow, he will have to rally to bowl again in the second innings, assuming England score enough runs, another job likely to be largely down to him.
England kept tugging India back, refusing to give in. At 80 for four and 146 for six, they had India in their sights, but with the ball swinging for the first time on tour, Joe Root always looked as if he was searching for another option.
The pivotal moment came in the
final over before tea, with India 152 for six, 53 behind. Bess fired one into Pant bowling round the wicket, he missed and was hit on the back leg. Root reviewed, and the umpire’s call of not out was upheld, only one third of the ball judged to be hitting top of middle.
England had benefited from a marginal call earlier on Rohit Sharma, but this was the back leg and looked out in real time. Bess may one day recall it as a crucial moment in his career.
Pant batted intelligently, showing he can do more than play at warp speed, weighing up the situation and hanging in as Anderson and Stokes gave nothing away.
He was on 75 and India 223 for six when the second new ball came, but by then Stokes was running on vapours and Anderson into his third spell. Pant took his chance, dancing down and cracking Anderson’s first delivery with the new ball for four through mid-off, and swatted the next through the covers. Pant reverse-swept over the slips the first ball of Anderson’s next over and brought up his hundred, swinging Root for his second six over midwicket. Even though he was caught off a toe-ender soon after, pulling Anderson, the damage was done,
England conceding 141 runs in the last session.
Gujarat is home to the world’s tallest statue, so it was appropriate India ran into England’s colossus. Stokes had bowled just 15 overs in the series and been laid low by a stomach bug too, but he relished the challenge, knocking over Virat Kohli for a duck, bowling for almost the entire first session.
Kohli was surprised by extra bounce and movement and could only fend an edge behind for his second duck of the series. Jack Leach had already removed Cheteshwar Pujara lbw and when Anderson, who remarkably bowled 11 maidens in his first 15 overs, lured Ajinkya Rahane to fiddle at an outswinger, Stokes’s reflexes were still sharp enough to grab a fine low catch at slip. England had knocked over the big three. Of those, Pujara has the highest series average, just 28, a sign of how tough batting has been on these surfaces.
Stokes must have wanted to jump into the city’s Sabarmati River to cool off, but in this mood would probably have swum from one bank to the other and harpooned a few fish along the way.
His persistence landed a whopper, Rohit, the most consistent player of the series. He set him up beautifully with away swingers before nipping one back in for a tight lbw that would have trimmed the top of the stumps.
Leach soon had Ravichandran Ashwin caught off a leading edge but, with Bess out of confidence, conceding runs at more than four an over for most of the day, and the two seamers out on their feet, Pant and Sundar compiled the first fifty, and then century, stand of the game. Stokes bowled four overs that cost 32 after tea, the spirit willing but the batteries long since run down.
England’s hope of a lead evaporated as Pant played with controlled aggression to fight his way out of a tight corner, his talent as an allformats player on show.