Keaton Jennings made a brilliant start to his Test career in Mumbai, guiding England into a strong position on the first day in Mumbai, but India will be keen to hit back today with the pitch deteriorating rapidly. Join The Roar for live scores of Day 2 from 3pm (AEDT).
With the series almost gone for England, with the best result they can achieve being a 2-2 draw, Keaton Jennings was brought in to make his debut for the injured Haseeb Hameed at the top of the order.
While the pitch offered very little for the bowlers early, it was clear spin bowling was going to be the main course of action once again as a majority of overs were bowled by the tweakers.
It didn’t stop Jennings though, who top-scored with a fabulous century and along with Alastair Cook, got England off to a reasonable start, the pair putting on 99 for the first wicket.
Unfortunately for England though, Moeen Ali was the only other batsman who really got going as he made a strong half-century batting at no. 4.
Despite being 2 for 230 at one point, England went to stumps having lost 3 for 19, finishing the day’s play at 5 for 288 from 94 overs.
Even though they won the toss and were able to bat first, conditions were less than easy as Ravichandran Ashwin spun a web late in the day to pick up four of the five wickets that fell.
Day 2 Prediction
England need more runs in their first innings to say they are truly in front of the match, but it’s hard to see where those runs will come from.
Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, who batted through to stumps yesterday, will need to start today exactly where they left off to ensure England get to what will be a competitive first innings score.
As Ashwin and Jadeja proved yesterday, spin is going to be key in this match and India certainly have the edge over England here.
Despite that, India must claim a first innings lead having to bat last on what is going to become a minefield to bat on.
With the way they have been batting recently – only Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara doing anything of note – they need to knock England over in record time this morning.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of the second day’s play in Mumbai from 3pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.
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Tim Holt
Roar Guru
Always intrigues me how players go when the emphasis comes on them to perform by taking a more prominent role in their teams prospects. It is my main belief why Nathan Lyon gets exposed on occasion when he is cast in a role he is not comfortable with. In this case, the stand out is the English spinners, notably Adil Rashid. The leggie has been very respectable all series but in this game where the focus has come on him to be the 'man' by commandeering a potential victory charge, he has come up way short. This takes away from the excellence of the Indian batting, particularly Murali Vijay, who despite his modest average is one of the few complete batsmen in the game in respect to able in all confines. The game is still in England's favour if they can get early wickets by improving how they bowled but it will rely heavily on the spinners stepping up to the plate and rising from their complete rubbish of today
Brasstacks
Guest
Though India have made a good start, their batsmen are prone to collapse against sustained spin bowling. I expect the Poms to eke out a 50 run first innings lead.