A well-measured unbeaten 75 from Shreyas Iyer and a resilient fifty half-century from Ravindra Jadeja kept an under-strength India in commanding position at the end of the first day’s play in the first Test in Kanpur.
At stumps, India were 258/4 with both Iyer and Jadeja looking hungry for more runs as the umpires decided to call off the day due to poor lighting conditions.
The surface at the Green Park Stadium offered both uneven bounce and a bit of spin to spinners and erratic movement to pacers when they bowled in good length areas. The surface was tricky and both sides played a spin-heavy attack to establish what they expected the pitch to do.
New Zealand’s brave call, India go for the kill
New Zealand made a big and brave call of leaving out their workhorse Neil Wagner, who could have been handy on the surface where there was uneven bounce and his bouncers could have been tough to handle. The Blackcaps opted to play with an extra spinner in the form of William Somerville, who at best, could provide control with his off-spin.
India had to make an easy call of selecting their third spinner in Axar Patel over an extra seamer who could have been Mohammed Siraj. However, his overwhelming numbers in the first series against England and the absence of key batsmen in the team tilted the balance heavily in favour of the left-arm spinner.
Kyle Jamieson proves his credentials
Kyle Jamieson has been one of the top performers for the Blackcaps in their journey to become the world champions in the longest format. He has been a revelation with the ball and has silenced many critics who first dismissed him as a bowler just of seamer-friendly conditions.
He first proved his credentials in England, where swung the ball appreciably, to an extent that flummoxed many batsmen including the Indian skipper.
He came into the series against India, having already proven his versatility as a seam bowler but Indian pitches have not been the best of friends of many overseas pacers in the past. He seemed prepared though and he extracted more swing than Tim Southee, who has been one of the pronounced exponents of the swing bowling in the morning session of the first day to keep Mayank Agarwal and Shubman Gill at bay.
He was at the batsmen with almost every delivery in and around off stump and finally got the edge of Mayank’s bat, who could not become too sure of the balls he could leave due to Jamieson’ bag full of tricks.
Gill scores, but pattern emerging
Shubman Gill was unlikely to open the batting in the series and instead was to compete with Shreyad Iyer for a place in the middle order for the first Test. However, the injury to KL Rahul opened the door for him and he did not look out of place completely.
There was obvious tentativeness on balls around off but that can be forgiven for any opening batsmen. As he got his eyes in and started to move his feet, the crisp drives which have become his signature shots started to flow off his bat and he reached his fifty without making a fuss.
However, like it was in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand and in the Test series against England, he lost his control all of a sudden and poked at a ball outside off stump in a quite uncharacteristic manner. The manner of his dismissal was not uncharacteristic though as he has shown signs of losing it all after making a great start and it could well be highlighted in the fact that he has not reached the three-figure mark in the eight Tests before the ongoing one in Kanpur albeit he has weathered the new ball storm on multiple occasions with strong defence and classy shots.
Iyer’s nervy, but a strong start
Shreyas Iyer has been known for his aggressive approach in batting as he has amassed his runs in first-class cricket at a strike rate in excess of 80 runs per 100 balls. The story was not quite different for him as his first scoring attempt was a lofted shot off Ajaz Patel on the eighth ball of his innings.
He was lucky to get away with that miscued attempt but he never looked back on the shot and moment thereafter. He was severe on anything bowled at his pads by the pacers while his best game came against the spin trio of Patel, Somerville and Ravindra.
He was nimble-footed and did not get deceived even once in flight as he was quick to rock to the backfoot and use the depth of the crease to punish anything bowled slightly shorter in length. He was dominating spinners for fun and played some high-risk shots with remarkable ease to turn the clock back on how Indian batsmen used to play spinners in the previous generations.
He was not over the top in aggression though and presented his dead bat defence too whenever he was asked some tough questions, which largely came only from the pace duo of Tim Southee and Jamieson.
He is unbeaten on 75 and did not look fussed about scoring in a desperate fashion that could jeopardize his chance of scoring a big one in his first outing in the longest format. If he goes on to score a big score tomorrow, it would augur well both for him and India in the Test match and the near future.
Looking ahead to the second day
India have formed a stable base on the back of fifties from Iyer, Gill and Jadeja and they are out of the woods they found themselves in when Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed by Jamieson. However, the job is not fulfilled yet and either one of Iyer or Jadeja or both of them will have to convert their fifties into a big century for India to drive home the advantage and bat New Zealand to the brink of the game.
New Zealand, on the other hand, should not be down and out in the game and a couple of breakthroughs in the first hour or session without too many runs will turn the tide in their favour.
Neither team has lost control or gained unassailable heights in the game so far and it is a fitting start to a series that promised close contests but faded off in terms of interests due to the absence of some of the superstar players on both sides.