England pulled off a victory from the jaws of defeat in the first Test in Hyderabad.
Coming into the series, all eyes were on England's approach with the bat in hand and whether their aggressive 'Bazball' approach would work on Indian soil. As it turned out, Ben Stokes and his men backed their fearless game to stun the hosts.
Despite conceding a substantial first-innings lead of 190 runs, the visitors fought back as they rode on Ollie Pope’s remarkable century (196) to rack up 420 in their second essay, setting a stiff target of 231 for India.
During the chase, the home side capitulated to be bowled out for 202 in 69.2 overs, with England’s debutant spinner Tom Hartley (7/62) doing the bulk of the damage.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, England pacer Mark Wood issued a warning to India, saying that turning track is no longer a "foregone conclusion" for his team.
"I don't know what (pitch) they will produce (for the second Test). India have got the potential to produce any wicket here. I've played in World Cup games and IPL games where it's seamed, flat pitches, spinning wickets. They have the potential to do any wicket they want.
"But now, we've given them something to think about. It's not a foregone conclusion that we are going to turn up here and they're going to spin us out," Wood was quoted as saying by 'ESPNCricinfo'.
The highlight of Ollie Pope’s game-changing knock was the sweeps, reverse sweeps and switch hits he consistently executed against the formidable Indian spin trio of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel.
"Ollie Pope has played a fantastic knock, they're now going to have to go analyse, like we would do if things didn't go well, and analyse how they are going to try and combat that," Wood said.
"We've won one game, it's a hell of an achievement, but I don't think we need to get too far ahead of ourselves. Don't build this up now and say, 'ah we're going to win'. It's the same again. Go into the next game with the same belief, same process and hopefully get the same result," he added.
Mark Wood was the lone pacer in England’s playing XI in Hyderabad and he expressed a sense of oddity when skipper Ben Stokes informed him about bowling micro-spells.
"When we were at the ground, he (Stokes) said probably one or two. I mean, I thought I may not even open the bowling in second innings. But it was like 'one over; that's it'.
"So that was a bit weird. Especially when the captain says you're going to bowl one over with the new ball and it was a bit like, right, I'll practice one over with the new ball," he said.
"Very rarely would you think you'd bowl one over and then be off. But weirdly I trust what he says. One over? Right, okay, I'll give it everything for this over. And then he said 'rest' and I'm not annoyed. Like, I get it, we're going to spin now. So it's just a bit different."
Wood bowled 25 overs across the two Indian innings and remained wicketless. On the other hand, India’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah returned with six wickets, including 4/41 in the second innings.
"Bumrah didn't do me any favours by bowling like a genius," Wood said. "That was tough! It was a bit odd, a bit weird at times. Usually at points during the game I'd think 'I might bowl here' but the spin is doing the damage.
"I said to Jimmy (Anderson) that I found it more bizarre that I didn't have anyone to talk to. I was sort of working it out as I went along. Usually if Jimmy is bowling a spell he can say to me 'this worked well', or 'what about this?' You are talking to the captain and not really knowing how it's going to go," he further remarked.
(With PTI Inputs)