Rahul and Jadeja take the lead to push England against the wall

India 421 for 7 (Rahul 86, Jadeja 81*, Jaiswal 80, Bharat 41, Axar 35*, Root 2-77, Hartley 2-131) lead England 246 by 175 runs

India all but batted England out of the first Test as early as the second day, overhauling their 246 for a first-innings lead of 175 and three wickets still in hand. India began the day 127 behind, lost a wicket in the first over, but kept on batting enterprisingly, moving into the lead in only the 57th over. KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja led the batting charts with contrasting fifties.

It was only after five wickets fell that England managed to bring some control into the proceedings. All five fell to attacking shots, only the second time it has happened since ESPNcricinfo started doing ball-by-ball commentary. The other instance was England trying to set up a declaration in Barbados in 2022.

The other side of the aggressive intent was that wickets kept falling. Everyone bar R Ashwin got himself in. Everyone including Ashwin kind of gave his wicket away. No one other than KS Bharat fell lbw, bowled or caught at the wicket.

The closest one got out to falling to a plan was when Yashasvi Jaiswal hit a catch back at Joe Root in the first over of the day. Root went on to create chances from both Rahul and Shubman Gill, but was taken off after just four overs despite looking like the best spinner on display. Rahul edged the first ball he faced, Ben Foakes failed to collect it, and the umpire called the resultant run a bye. Even if Foakes had caught it, England were out of reviews after burning them all in the first 14 overs.

Debutant left-arm spinner Tom Hartley got another long spell during which he got on the board with the wicket of Gill. Among the specialist batters, Gill was the only one who frequently defended well in front of his body. As the dots accumulated, Gill looked for the big release shot. He got away when he miscued Root, but ended up hitting Hartley straight to midwicket.

England immediately went to the only pacer in their attack, Mark Wood, to look to test Shreyas Iyer. But Rahul hit him for three boundaries even before he could bowl to Iyer – the back-foot punch past point was one for the highlight reels. The hallmark of Rahul’s batting was his willingness to stay back against spin and keep picking singles. Twenty-six runs of his half-century, brought up off just 72 balls, came off the back foot.

Iyer’s method might not have been so foolproof, but he was ruthless each time the bowlers erred. And they erred frequently. A classic example was Rehan Ahmed’s first over of the day. When you first encounter Rehan, two things make the batter’s job difficult: he bowls with a scrambled seam and he bowls both the legbreak and the wrong’un out of the back of the hand. Naturally, Iyer struggled to pick him. The first ball went past the edge, the second took the edge but fell short of slip, the third hit the glove but went right down, and yet he offered a short ball, which gave Iyer the boundary.

The first maiden of the day came immediately after lunch. In the second over from that end, the third after the break, Iyer picked a wrong’un and perhaps wanted the bowler to know he had done so, but the slog sweep that he committed to ended up with the only boundary fielder on the leg side, deep midwicket. In Rehan’s next over, Rahul picked the variations all right and went one better by hitting two sixes, both down the ground. The second of those took India into the lead.

The partnership between Rahul and Jadeja began on steroids, crushing any hopes of momentum England might have had with that early wicket after lunch. The partnership reached 52 in 51 balls, but soon Rahul picked out deep midwicket with a long hop from Hartley, 14 short of what would have been only a second home century to go with seven away from home.

At long last, England managed some control, bowling 11.1 overs leading up to tea for just 21 runs to Jadeja and Bharat. Jadeja, a proper old-fashioned player of spin, was happy to just wait for the bad ball except for not letting Jack Leach settle by stepping out to him. Bharat didn’t start convincingly, but post tea, he, too, started getting the regular ordinary ball. He went from 10 off 44 to 41 off 81 but missed trying to sweep a second boundary in a Root over.

Ashwin and Jadeja, great partners with the ball, soon got into a misunderstanding to give England their first set of two quick wickets, but India already led by 112 at that point.

Both Jadeja and Axar batted like proper top-order batters, keeping the good balls out and putting away the bad ones. It is unfair almost to have to bowl to batters of such ability for the eighth wicket, but the spinners on show failed to question them enough.

Axar ended a sedate day for himself with a four, six and four off the last three balls. Despite that, India went at under three an over since the wicket of Rahul, but they still added 133 runs for the loss of just two wickets. It meant more mileage on the pitch, more time for it to break, and also more runs in the bank for India. Jadeja ended the day with a century in sight, and his partnership with Axar read 63 in 19.3 overs.

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