England won the toss in Hyderabad Test and chose to bat first.
Ben Stokes, England captain, won the toss and chose to bat first. Openers Zak Crawley (20) and Ben Duckett (35) contributed 55 runs for the first wicket. Rohit Sharma recognized that the pitch might favor spin and instantly brought in his ace spinners. Ashwin quickly intervened, dismissing both openers, while Jadeja dismissed Ollie Pope.
Jonny Bairstow came out to bat at number five and formed a rebuilding partnership with Joe Root. They scored 61 for the fourth wicket before Bairstow was caught off a stunning spin delivery by Akshar Patel for 37 runs.
IND v ENG 2024: WATCH- Akshar Patel bamboozles Jonny Bairstow with a beautiful delivery in 1st Test
And while Ben Stokes managed one end, Ben Foakes and Rehan Ahmed also fell shortly to leave England 155/7.
Kevin Pietersen was very confident of England scoring buckets of runs after Ben Stokes had won the toss. He had posted on X: “England bat. 450/9 declared today?”
However, as England began losing wickets despite their attempt to follow bazball, Pietersen’s tone changed as well, after seeing the pitch turning square from day one.
He soon posted: “Bloody Hell!!! Might be a two day game!”
Wasim Jaffer used both of these tweets in a meme graphic and then tagged Dinesh Karthik saying the India keeper-batter will translate the meme to the Englishman.