ENG vs IND | 2nd Test, Day 1: Rahul, Rohit put on masterclass to drive home advantage

A high-class hundred from KL Rahul and an equally classy half-century from Rohit Sharma put India on top by the end of the first day’s play of the second Test against England at Lord’s. Both of them had looked good in the last Test at Trent Bridge as well, but they converted their scores into substantial scores to put the hosts under real pressure.

At the stumps, Rahul was unbeaten at 127 while Ajnkya Rahane nervously survived the last 15 minutes to take India to 276/3.

A Bowling day?

England captain Joe Root won yet another toss as Virat Kohli’s hard luck with the toss continued at Lord’s as well. There were little to no chances of rain on the first three days of the Test but it did arrive well before the proceedings could take shape.

Buoyed by the cloud cover and intermittent rain, Root called upon his pacers led by James Anderson to unleash their swing and seam on the Indian batting lineup that was thin in terms of personnel.

He could have had his reasons to bowl first as they would have thought of taking away the top order and star-studded batting lineup when there was the maximum amount of assistance available.

The move did not yield results though as both Rohit and Rahul put on a masterful show of batting against swing and seam bowling and put on a hundred-run partnership for the first wicket.

Rohit’s control, Rahul’s patience

England pacers barring Anderson were guilt of bowling wide deliveries to both Rohit and Rahul and one of them bothered to chase them at the start of the innings. They could only muster eight runs in the first eight overs of the game while it took 13 overs for the first boundary to come, but they did not offer even one opportunity to England bowlers as well.

However, once Root took Anderson off the attack and handed the duke to Sma Curran, who is known to extract swing in the air, Rohit latched onto the opportunity. He took a liking of Curran and despatched him for four boundaries in the over to get India going with runs.

Hinting at no remorse after failing to a short ball in the first Test, Rohit hooked another sharp bouncer from Mark Wood, who was bowling thunderbolts on his return to the Test cricket. The connection however was better and it sailed over fine leg boundary. Wood thought of tempting him again but by the time the next short delivery came, he was well in the middle of his bullish mode and smashed him in front of the square from the front foot.

At the other end, Rahul was showing exemplary patience and did not open up his blade while Rohit was going all guns blazing. He chose to score only 11 runs from his first 81 balls in order to provide India with a perfect platform on what the hosts believed to be a bowling-friendly day.

However, as soon as Rohit departed, he changed his momentum and started punishing bad balls to the fence. He upped his tempo and like Rohit, cashed in on the scoring opportunities presented by England’s third and fourth pacer in Wood and Curran.

He was threatening for a big one in Nottingham but his three-figure core could not have come at a better venue than the Lord’s. 

Reopening of Kohli’s 2014 wounds?

Indian skipper walked out to bat towards the end of Anderson’s spell in the afternoon session and took some time before getting off the mark. Anderson was at him around the off stump and Rahul provided him with enough protection by farming strike to see off Anderson. The pacer was at the top of his game on either side of the tea break and dismissed Rohit and Cheteshwar Pujara, who seems to have lost all the strings of his batting. He went out in the most unlikeliest fashion of poking at one he could have left from Anderson.

Slowly, he found his groove and played some crisp shots through the off side and whip off the wrist against Moeen Ali to show signs of revival of the form. However, he was shuffling across the stumps to cover his off stump and ultimately it led to his undoing.

Ollie Robinson found that nagging length and the line outside off stump and lured him into playing at one he should have left and a delighted Joe Root could not let that chance go towards the end of what was a tough day for the hosts.

Kohli has been found wanting in the same channel in the 2014 series and also in the three out of four innings so far on the current tour and unless he tightens him up, there will be no end of such balls and his misery in the series.

Looking forward to the second day

India would be delighted to welcome Rahul back into the pavilion unbeaten after 100 while Rahane too would have gathered some sort of understanding of how the pitch is behaving by the end of the day’s play.

The tourists will be disappointed if they don’t amass anything less than 400 runs in the first innings after such a strong batting performance on an opening day. Individually, Rahane would be eager to get back among runs after a lean patch.

England would be pumped up to get an early breakthrough to stop the Indian batting order from batting them out of the game with a huge score on the board. Root was not helped by the inaccuracies of Curran and Wood, and the team management would be hopeful of some consistency from the duo on the second day if they don’t want to bowl Anderson to the ground and out of the series.