Indian Spinners restrict England to 205 on day one

It was another day to forget for the English batsman who succumbed to 205 all-out after winning a good toss on a great batting deck. England had strengthened their batting department through the additions of Daniel Lawrence and Dom Bess but once again had no answers to the Indian spinners Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin who picked up seven wickets between them. Ben Stokes top-scored for the visitors with 55 but received little to no support from the rest of the batsman as England failed to register even one 50 run partnership throughout the innings. The only solace for England was that they managed to pull one wicket back late in the day after Shubman Gill was dismissed for nought.

Much of the discussion after the previous test has been about the pitch but the one rolled out in the 4th Test was a batting paradise with very little assistance for bowlers. Unfortunately, England weren’t able to make the most of the prime batting conditions and succumbed to 30-3 within the first hour of play. It was Axar Patel who was the chief tormentor for the hosts and got rid of both openers in his first two overs. Dom Sibley inside-edged a ball onto his stumps while Zak Crawley was dismissed while looking to take the aerial route against him. Mohammed Siraj replaced Jasprit Bumrah who was given personal leave ahead of the fourth test and immediately got in on the action by taking the key wicket of Joe Root who was trapped in front of his stumps.

England were able to consolidate until the lunch break thanks to a gritty fightback from Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes. Regrettably, neither batter was able to last long and make their start count and both were dismissed shortly after lunch. Bairstow was undone by an inswinger from Siraj while Stokes missed a straighter one from Washington Sundar to leave England reeling at 121-5. Daniel Lawrence and Ollie Pope held the fort for a while and looked comfortable at the crease before Pope got out in an unfortunate manner against Ashwin. Daniel Lawrence fell four runs short of his fifty but looked assured and composed in attack and defence in the time he spent at the wicket.

Axar and Ashwin shared the last six English wickets as they were bowled out for 205, the first time they passed 200 in an innings since the first innings of the first test in Chennai.

England enjoyed some joy with the ball as Jimmy Anderson took the wicket off Shubman Gill in the very first over of the innings. Gill once again fell to the ball that came in and continued his string of failures in this series. Anderson was impeccable in the last hour of play as he bowled five overs on the trot without conceding a single run. Pujara and Rohit Sharma were able to see out the day with India trailing by 181 runs heading into day two.