After almost two and a half years, England returns to India. During that time, both teams have changed leaders and coaches. In the 2020–21 series, Ravi Shastri was the coach of India, which was captained by Virat Kohli. Kohli will miss the first two Test matches due to personal reasons; therefore, Virat is out of the lineup this time.
However, with the arrival of captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum in May 2022, England’s style of playing Test cricket has almost taken the globe by storm. Everyone was excited to see how well Bazball did in the tough Indian conditions.
In Hyderabad, Ben Stokes, the captain of England, has won the toss and decided to bat first. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, who opened the innings, were as aggressive as ever, smashing Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah all over the field in the opening ten overs until the spin duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja came into the attack.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett got England off to a buzzing start
The pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, has dry patches in the middle of the wicket, and on the other side of the wicket, there’s less dry patch closer to the bat. So it looked like there was going to be a lot of spin on this wicket.
India started with their pace duo, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah. But both the English players were clear with their mindset and kept on playing their shots all around the ground whenever they got a chance. Jasprit Bumrah did ask some tough questions to both the openers, especially to Ben Duckett.
Mohammed Siraj didn’t look in his rhythm as he started his spell with a couple of half-volleys, which got punished by successive boundaries by England batters. The England openers found themselves in a comfortable position as they were getting boundaries at regular intervals, and they were on 41/0 after the 8 overs.
Ravichandran Ashwin removes Ben Duckett
As soon as the spin duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja came into the attack, the England openers found themselves in some trouble. Jadeja got the spin from the pitch in the very first over of his spell. Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin kept asking tough questions to both openers.
Ben Duckett played a reverse sweep against Ravichandran Ashwin in his first over to get some runs, and he kept on playing sweeps in the next over of Jadeja and scored two consecutive boundaries.
Ravichandran Ashwin got Duckett in his second over. Ben Duckett has to play the forward defense well in front of his body because Ashwin has bowled the in-between length.
This is the length where batters can’t adjust to variations off the surface. The delivery from Ashwin was a deliberate off-break, but it landed more on the leather than the seam, beating the bat and trapping him in front of him.
What’s next for England?
England lost two more wickets after the dismissal of Duckett in the quick period and found themselves in a struggling position as Jadeja and Ashwin had tightened the screws. For England, now it’s up to Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow to form a good partnership for them.
At the time of writing, England were on 101/3 after Root and Bairstow stitched a well-needed partnership of 41 (68) for England.
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