3rd Test Day 1 Report: Axar, Rohit put scarred England to sword on fast-moving day at Motera

Although the action in the ongoing Test series between India and England moved from South India to the Western part of the country, the sides looked to be still stuck in the past developments. However, the thing of the past turned out to be disastrous for England, while a similar script helped India dominate the proceedings on the first day of the third Test at the newly named Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera. 

For India, the weapons of attack did not change as Rohit piled on another masterclass with an unbeaten half-century before Axar Patel ran riots among the English batsmen playing for the first time at his home ground as England looked scared of playing spin after facing a humbling defeat at the Chepauk last week. 

India will be disappointed letting England get back in the game on the back of skipper Virat Kohli’s wicket at the fag end of the day, but a deficit of only 13 runs and having seven wickets in their hands does not augur alarming for them going into the second day. However, they will need to avert the mishaps of batting collapse which ruined their chances from a similar position they found themselves in during their last Pink-Ball Test in Australia.

England were left seething with some calls from umpires not going their way in the last Test and Joe Root and his senior teammates finally had enough of their patience on miscommunication between the umpires. Very early into the Indian innings, Shubman Gill edged one off Broad and Ben Stokes claimed a catch that was dying on him. On-field umpire Anil Chaudhary signalled out in his soft signal in consultation with the square leg umpire Nitin Menon, but the third umpire Shamsuddin found the ball touching the ground while Stokes was trying hard to grasp on the first replay and overruled the on-field soft signal. 

An embarrassed Stokes was left smiling and clapping for reasons known to only himself, but the tension in the English camps due to poor communication between the umpires was past the optimum level and it appeared on TV that Root made a point clear to the umpires that there were not enough shreds of evidence to overrule the on-field call and that the protocol was hasty before reaching a conclusion.

But the reprieve to Gill did not cost England too much as probably for the first time in his short career the right-hander looked out of touch. He was getting caught in the crease by both Anderson and Broad, and when Archer offered him short balls, his eyes lit up to latch on to it. He got greedy and perished in the process that brought Cheteshwar Pujara to the middle who has hit a surprising slump in scoring although not looking out of form. 

Pujara has been a master of picking the line and lengths of spinners and he generally deals spinners proactively, at least on Indian pitches but Jack Leach seems to have got his number in this series. He was outfoxed by the left-arm spinner in both the Tests at Chepauk and the story was similar in Ahmedabad as well when he was caught plumb in front of the sumps against one that did not turn. More worryingly for Pujara, he was way off the mark in terms of picking the line of the ball and was beaten all ends up by Leach.

The pitch was turning for the spinners, but a lot of wickets that fell on the first day should be attributed to batsmen thinking a lot about the threat of spinning balls, instead of playing one at a time on merit and watching the ball closely.

Contrasting choice, contrasting fate

Apart from the contrasting fate the sides had at the end of the first day’s play, there was a clear and early indication of complete contrast in their views about the pitch and playing conditions as well. However, the thought process can be deemed similar for both sides and think tanks relied on their best attack, albeit not necessarily as per the conditions on offer at the Motera stadium.

While the Virat Kohli-led India looked at the pitch to be another spin-friendly while also acknowledging the help the pacers might get in the air under the lights and persisted with a three spinner-two pacer bowling attack, Root’s England banked on the pacers to get the best out of the conditions with the bank ball in their hands.

The jury was out even before the first ball was bowled in the third Test on the question of who among the two sides got their selection right, and it would be fair to say that Kohli’s decision has been ratified by his bowlers. However, Root’s dilemma of not relying on an inconsistent Dominic Bess and relying on the pacers to challenge India under lights can’t be blamed with the benefit of hindsight.

Indian spinners were as accurate as they were in the second Test and kept asking tough questions to England batters on a pitch that offered enough natural variations to deny them any freedom to get out of asphyxiation at the crease. 

Ashwin was more into trying new things, but he was relentless with his consistency and the straighter lines from the round the wicket angle paid dividends with the big wickets of Joe Root and Ollie Pope. Root was guilty of misjudging the length on one of the rarest occasions on a longish tour to the sub-continent and Ashwin could turn one past the inside edge of his bat to send tremors in the English dressing room.

Ollie Pope has been rated very highly by the team management and there has been some talk that he is Joe Root in making, but he has looked all over the place in the two and a half Tests he has played on this tour. Ashwin’s natural variation from round the wicket angle was too good for him and his stumps were rattled while he had committed himself on the front foot in hope for an off-spinning delivery.

India had dropped Kuldeep Yadav for Washington Sundar in pursuit of more cushioning in the batting department considering the extra level of threat that the pink ball brings with itself, but he was not required at all on the first day.

There are days when the stuff of people’s dreams start to take shape in front of their eyes and that too at a very pleasing rate. For Axar Patel, the first day’s play was one such day and he might well be forgiven for thinking temporarily that the success in Test cricket that every pundits rate so highly is not that tougher to achieve. He claimed another fifer— second in as many Tests and the grand spectacle of a Pink Ball Test at his home must have sweetened the deal for him.

Kohli was proactive to see England's game plan in dropping Rory Burns and packing the top order with right-handers in order to combat the threat of Ashwin and unleashed Axar just after the sixth over to defeat the tourists in their own tactics. He repaid the faith with the very first ball of his second Test, and Bairstow could not get going after making his comeback from a break. Bairstow, like Pujara, played for the turn and the ball kept going on with the arm to trap him LBW. Axar went on to pick five more wickets, and all of them came in a similar fashion as England batsmen were made to look like searching for spin on the ball when there were none. 

Joe Root had shown them a method of scoring runs —sweeping against spinners, but the pace at which Axar bowls does not allow batsmen to get down on one knee. The fact that English batsmen are not as nimble-footed as Rohit Sharma is to put off spinners from their lengths make them ideal candidates for arm balls as they keep fending from the crease. 

England made some selection errors as they picked a team for a Pink-Ball Test and completely overlooked the surface they were to play on, but a frank assessment by the think tank will lay the blame on batsmen for capitulating against India on the first day itself.

They will be in hope of some magical spell of bowling from their pacers and will try to emulate their arch-rivals in Australia to skittle India down on the second day afternoon. However, they have their tasks cut out with Rohit Sharma looking ominous at one end, and the likes of Rahane and Rishabh Pant to follow in the batting order.