Yashasvi Jaiswal was particularly severe on the English bowlers on Day 1 of the Hyderabad Test,
Opting to bat first, England’s innings folded for 246 in 64.3 overs. Skipper Ben Stokes waged a lone battle for the visitors, scoring 70 off 88 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes.
In reply, the Indian batters took the English bowling attack to the cleaners. Left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was particularly severe on the touring bowlers as he notched up his half-century in just 47 balls and added 80 runs for the opening wicket with skipper Rohit Sharma (24) in just 12.2 overs.
Jaiswal finished the day on 76 not out off 70 balls (9 fours and 3 sixes) while Shubman Gill stayed unbeaten on 14, propelling the hosts to 119/1 at stumps.
After the close of play, England batter Ben Duckett admitted that they were taken aback by Indian batters’ aggressive approach in Hyderabad.
“It’s spinning quite a lot on day one. We could have easily had three or four [wickets] there tonight and it could have been very different. The way they played at the top was quite positive, and that’s fair play to them. I don’t think we necessarily thought they were going to come out and play like that, but Stokesy [Ben Stokes] got us to what we think was an above-par score,” Duckett was quoted as saying during an interview with talkSPORT.
“It was quite a good day. I thought we were pretty happy there, getting bowled out for what we were. I thought Stokesy was superb. We found it pretty tricky and I think, to be honest, they played well and really positively tonight. It’s tough work against that attack, and I thought we grafted really well today… when the ball is spinning like that on day one, it can be quite tough,” he added.
According to Duckett, the reason India decided to attack from the outset is an indication that the pitch may get difficult for batting going forward.
“You have to pay credit to them: they played really well tonight and were very attacking, which is positive. They don’t always go about it like that, so to go about it that way shows that they probably think that pitch is going to get quite a bit worse,” Duckett said.
Earlier, India’s spin troika of R Ashwin (3-68), Ravindra Jadeja (3-88) and Akshar Patel (2-33) ran through the English batting line-up, sharing a total of eight scalps among them.
Reflecting on the dismissals of England batters, Duckett said: “That’s going to happen out here, and that’s something that we’ll have good belief in when we’re bowling. We could easily take three or four [wickets] tomorrow morning for 10 runs.”
“It feels like a tricky pitch to start on. Shubman (Gill) there, we could have had him there. It looked like a dead lbw [Tom Hartley had rapped the Indian batter when his score read just one] and somehow, it’s bouncing over the stumps. It’s one of those things. We’ll stick to our mantra and that’s taking wickets and looking to be positive. Hopefully, that will happen for us as well.”
Commenting on Jaiswal’s whirlwind knock, Duckett said: “I think he played beautifully. These are home conditions [for India] and you’d expect nothing less of their lads than to play well out here. Even the wicket to get Rohit, they were looking quite set with those two and then that happened. Fingers crossed, if moments like that happen tomorrow, we can stick three or four [wickets] on them and you never know. If we can keep them to around our score, or even a little bit of a lead, I think we’re right in the game.”