This is the best Test debut I have ever seen
Debutant opener makes unbeaten half-century Four wickets for spinner as England build 163-run lead
This has been a fine Test match for England and even though the series seems destined to move on to India’s east coast next week at 0-0, Alastair Cook’s team have firmly left in the past the demoralising defeat by Bangladesh in Dhaka.
Tougher tests will await. The pitch for the second Test in Visakhapatnam, known colloquially as Vizag, will turn and could resemble the surfaces England played on in Bangladesh. Last month, Assam were bowled out for 69 in a Ranji Trophy match in Vizag, prompting the Indian board to send in its pitch inspector and contemplate shifting a one-day international against New Zealand and the England Test.
The groundsman promised a batting wicket for the New Zealand match. India made 269, New Zealand were spun out for 79 by the leg-spinner Amit Mishra, who took five wickets. No chance of shifting the England Test then if it spins. The toss will be crucial again but at least when England leave Rajkot tomorrow on their chartered flight to Vizag, they should travel boosted by the knowledge that they can match India.
England’s leg-spinner, Adil Rashid, produced his best Test performance, bowling consistently and with dangerous turn on a pitch that did not break up, to take four for 114 as his team established a slender first-innings lead of 49, the first time India had conceded a deficit at home in 13 Tests.
Rashid said working with Saqlain Mushtaq, who has joined the England party as a spin-bowling consultant, this week had helped him in setting fields, game plans and “finding the pace I spin the ball the most”. If India produce a turner in Vizag, it will bring England’s spinners into play, too.
The seamers were also impressive, with hardly any lateral movement on offer. They were patient throughout India’s long innings, waiting for their wickets and never waning despite the sapping heat. Chris Woakes bowled with pace, pushing back the batsmen with his bounce, and to bowl 31 overs for just 57 runs was a remarkable effort. James Anderson was again on the field as a substitute but in South Africa he was slow to hit his stride after an injury and England must not rush him. With only three days’ break between Tests, Woakes will have to be looked after carefully.
India, like England, have a long batting order and Ravi Ashwin compiled a composed 70 to ensure the deficit was not too large. It even put India in the strongest position to win the game when England started their second innings. A clatter of wickets and the whiff of the panic of Dhaka would have resurfaced.
But if Rashid has made a statement of sorts here, Haseeb Hameed has announced his arrival in full voice. With his captain struggling for touch again, Hameed took the attack to India. Despite the pressure of batting on a fourth-day pitch in India with fielders clustered around the bat, he hit Ravindra Jadeja for a straight six down the ground.
His only other six in first-class cricket was a hook off Toby RolandJones against Middlesex at Lord’s last season. To choose a stroke he had never played before in professional cricket was audacious and clever, too. Not so much Baby Boycott as Baby Botham. The four fielders around his bat were reduced to two and mid-on was pushed back. A small battle had been won.
A late cut for four off Ashwin was followed next ball by a powerful cover drive to the boundary. With a long stride and a soft bottom hand, Hameed matched technique to his temperament and it must have been a massive relief for Cook, who has seen so many opening partners fail from the other end.
Like all good players, Hameed’s example rallied his partner and Cook found his range as England reached 114
for no wicket at the close, 163 ahead. The plan this morning will have been to bat beyond lunch and bowl around 40 overs at India, causing them some discomfort to take at least a moral victory into the next Test.
After two hundreds on the third day, yesterday was set up for Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, India’s two best batsmen. Kohli is in divine form and Rahane is India’s most consistent player.
England had seen how New Zealand bounced him out last month and
opted for the short-ball attack but he rode it out well. It was a misjudgment against Zafar Ansari’s left-arm spin that brought the first breakthrough when Rahane tried to pull a ball that was too full, bounced, and trimmed the bails.
Kohli played a supreme cover drive and, even though it was another small crowd, the noise began to grow as they anticipated a big innings from the India captain.
But the fans were to be bemused, and so was Kohli, at the manner of his demise. He had been getting deeper in his crease to Rashid and eventually went too far and trod on his wicket. At 361 for six, with India 176 behind, England had a chance.
But Ashwin is the world’s No1 allrounder and he showed why by playing to his strengths, taking few risks and teaming up with keeper Wriddhiman Saha to put on 64.
Moeen Ali bowled better than he had at any stage in the innings to remove Saha, and Rashid was trusted to polish off the innings. He had Jadeja caught at short leg with a ball that bounced and turned sharply, and Umesh Yadav was set up by the googly and then slogged a leg-break up in the air.
England should have taken a 77-run lead but Cook dropped a sitter at slip off Mohammad Shami. The let-off allowed Ashwin to reach his fifty and trim the lead, but England had the advantage.