2nd Test Day 2 Report: Ashwin, Axar script perfect day for India on 15-wicket day at Chepauk

Cricket pundits had opined after the end of the first day’s play that the score of 300 runs for the loss of six wickets was already a mountainous task for the England team to challenge, and by the end of the second day’s play all those assertions were coming out to be true. England are so far back in the game that even a collapse by the Indian batting order such as Adelaide would need magic for them to save the game. 

India are just one wicket down for 54 runs in their second innings with the tormentor in chief for the tourists—Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara at the crease when the second day’s play ended. They are ahead of England by a huge margin of 249 runs, and it will be more a formality for the sides as the path for Joe Root’s only going to get a lot tougher.

The hero for India was Ravichandran Ashwin who bagged yet another fifer in Test cricket. He has taken 29 five-wicket hauls in 141 Test innings and his greatness with the ball can be emphasized with the number of innings that the great Glenn Mcgrath took to bring up his 29th fifer in Tests. The Australian pacer who is rated as one of the best to have ever played the game took as many as 243 innings to bag as many fifers in Tests as Ashwin has in his kitty.

Since the time the pitch started to turn on the first day, there was a buzz about the threat of Ashwin on this pitch that many likened to ‘beach.’ He was on the money with his pace and drift and seamlessly ran through the top order of the England team.

After Ishant Sharma’s brilliance in the first over, Ashwin was all over the England batsmen as the opener Dominic Sibley’s comfort and resilience on Indian pitches appeared to be getting over with every delivery and overs Ashwin was throwing at him. Ultimately, the pressure and closing fielders choked him for runs, and his trust in his defence started to break away and he premeditated the approach his captain has been using in the last three-four Tests on similar pitches. Ashwin was getting a lot of bounce and he was smart enough to blow to Sibley from round the wicket to deny him the chance to get outside the line of off stump and the right-hander could not negotiate the bounce and Kohli was ecstatic to dive and take the catch to send him back to the pavilion.

Dan Lawrence who had shown signs of having good footwork against spinners against Sri Lanka proved to be second to Ashwin in terms of a mental game as Ashwin played with his game plan all throughout his stay in the middle. 

Ashwin was aptly supported by Axar Patel who showed why India were all but ready to play in the last game before he felt pain in his knee. He started bowling tight lines and at a brisk pace of more than 90 kmph which was the optimum speed at this pitch.

 Joe Root started his scoring with a sweep shot and he would have hoped to get the better of Indian spinners with his distracting technique once more, but the natural variation off the pitch was too much for him to handle and his long honeymoon in the subcontinent as he top-edged his sweep shot to Ashwin who was placed at a tactical position and Axar was delighted to see Root walking back as his first Test wicket.

For India, Ben Stokes was the only dangerman left among the ones who made them suffer in the last Test, and the spearhead of the attack Ashwin took it upon himself to get the better of Stokes. 

He started tossing the ball up towards the leg stump of Stokes from round the wicket angle with the help of drift and one that turned sharply after dipping just in front of the all-rounder’s bat on middle stump line, rattled the furniture and with that any hopes of England's dominance in the game.

English top order was already razed by the end of the first session, but the partnership between Ben Foakes, who was playing his first Test after two years, and Ollie Pope tried to calm down the nerves. Both tried to score runs from the backfoot whenever spinner erred in lengths and reached out to the pitch of the ball to defend.

A frustrated Virat Kohli brought Kuldeep Yadav after a long spell from Ashwin and Axar and the spinner who has been waiting in the wings for more than two years to bowl in a Test match had a perfect pitch to get into the groove all over again. He bowled good lengths and around the stump line, but his weakness in terms of being slow through the air allowed both Foakes and Pope to play from the backfoot and negate the turn he was getting.

He then brought a change in the bowling attack from the other end and introduced Mohammed Siraj to debut with the ball on Indian soil. His remarkable run with the red ball in hand continued where he left off in Australia where bagged a fifer in the last bowling innings and picked up the big wicket of Ollie Pope on the very first ball. 

Pope was caught late on a ball that bounced more than he anticipated and his reluctant half pull-half get out of the way shot found Rishabh Pant behind the wicket who has made sure to not miss any opportunity to be in the limelight in the recent past. The wicket peer dived valiantly to grasp the ball in his webbing and managed to control the ball from slipping away from his grasp even after it bounced off from his hand after he fell onto the ground.

At the other end of the pitch, Foakes was astute with bat and picked lengths of the ball very quickly and adjusted his footwork accordingly. He made sure to play the first line of the ball and left all on his luck to miss unplayable deliveries instead of going hard at all deliveries.

Ashwin and Axar spun a web around the other batsmen as Moeen Ali was outsmarted by the left-arm spinner coming from round the wicket and Rahane took a nice diving catch after a deflection from Pant’s pad to pin down the final nail in England’s coffin. 

The lower order had their task cut out and they could not resist against the discipline of Ishant and variety and guile of Ashwin, and in the end, Foakes was left stranded in a similar way Pant was left earlier in the day when the Indian tailender batsman could not quite hang around long enough to allow the wicketkeeper-batsman to take the full advantage of an under-pressure bowling line up.

Starting the day, India were hopeful of some runs from Axar and Pant to set the tone before they could unleash their spinners, but the debutant failed with the bat and was undone by Moeen Ali. Ishant Sharma could not show the discipline associated with him to provide support to Pant while a misjudged single by Pant exposed Kuldeep to the raw pace of Olly Stone. 

In the end, Pant was unbeaten at 58 balls for 77 balls that included seven fours and three sixes. He was furious when Siraj gifted his wicket away to England and it showed his hunger to make quick runs to put a lot more pressure on the England team than the score of 329 would have put.

After facing their first loss at home in Tests after a period of four years, the Indian team was back to their best as spinners honed in with their line and lengths. Amid a huge uproar on the quality of the pitch, the trio of Ashwin, Axar and Kuldeep showed better consistency and quality as compared to their English counterparts. It would have elated Kohli and the team management who could opt for a pitch like the one in the second Test at Chepauk only by taking a punt on them to outbowl the English spinners and also backing batsmen to put on the brilliance that came in the form of Rohit Sharma’s hundred and a pair of fifties from Pant and Rahane.