India Bagged Day 1 Honours with Smart Bowling and Some Luck

With the highly-anticipated Test series between India and England kicking off at the Edgbaston in Birmingham, it seemed that England might have played with more caution.

Cricket news: Ashwin was the pick of the lot while Kohli dropped the mic

There were two instances where the hosts could have gone to dominate game, but they lost both the opportunities and were left stranded at the end of the day with 285 for 9, having won the toss and elected to bat first.

Although it was not England’s own undoings that led to these numbers, but some moments of brilliance from R Ashwin (4 for 60) and Mohammed Shami (2 for 64), and a bit of luck which did the bulk of the damage.

The first damage came in the ninth over when a surprise first change bowler brought Ashwin and he soon took the wicket of Alastair Cook, his delivery turned from the middle to hit off stump.

The gem of a delivery from Ashwin and the assistance from the pitch must have left both the captains of the team wondering if they should have picked an additional spinner for the match.

The second damage came in the 63rd over when Jonny Bairstow hit a delivery from Ashwin to the leg side which was chased down by skipper Kohli. The batsmen called for a couple while Kohli grabbed the ball and threw off-balance to the non-striker’s end.

The ball hit the stumps directly and ended England’s captain Joe Root’s innings of 80 runs as well as the 137-ball partnership of 103 runs from Root and Bairstow.

Kohli celebrated the dismissal by mocking Root’s mic drop celebration, which he had done in the ODI series decider game.

In between those moments, Root and Jennings took the hosts to Lunch at 83 for 1, but Jennings soon departed following an inside edge from Shami’s delivery which spun back from outside the leg stump and hit the off stump.

Dawid Malan was trapped LBW by a Shami in-cutter and from 112 for 3, England started to rise up thanks to Bairstow and Root’s partnership.

After Root got out, Bairstow continued the onslaught but fell short on 70 as he chopped Umesh on to the stumps. Buttler was LBW by Ashwin while Ben Stokes meekly chipped a ball back to the spinner as England slumped to 243 for 7.

Adil Rashid and Sam Curran provided a 35-run stand before Ishant got Rashid LBW. Ashwin got his fourth wicket as he trapped Stuart Broad in front. Anderson and Curran played down the final overs as England went to Stumps at 285 for 9.

India had opted for KL Rahul in place of Cheteshwar Pujara and would hope their new batting lineup perform better than England’s in a pitch which seems to have a pretty straightforward batting conditions.

Brief scores: England 285/9 (Joe Root 80, Jonny Bairstow 70; R Ashwin 4-60, Mohammed Shami 2-64) vs India