India vs England: English bowling attack finds itself exposed as hosts surge ahead on Day 2 in Hyderabad

India were off to a solid start on the opening day of the first Test in Hyderabad after bundling England out for 246, reaching 119/1 at the close of play. England, however, weren’t quite out of the game yet and still had the chance of reigning in the home team the following day, provided they were able to strike early on the second day and collect wickets at regular intervals.

Facing the Indian team in a Test series in their own backyard is as tough a challenge as it can get and a strong start to the series is what visiting teams ideally need if they are to pull off the rare feat of a series victory. And despite Yashasvi entertaining the sizeable turnout at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on the opening day with his ‘Jaisball’ approach, England were right back in the game after Joe Root got rid of the fiesty young southpaw in the very first over on Friday.

Root, who’s quite handy with his off spin in addition to being a member of the batting ‘Fab Four’ of this generation, wasn’t introduced at all on the opening day and captain Ben Stokes would have felt he had missed a trick while making his way back to the team hotel along with the rest of the squad. He decided to rectify that error right away by giving Root the ball right away at the start of the second day.

Not only did Root snuff out Jaiswal’s wicket, right after getting hit for a boundary by the left-handed opener, he also nearly accounted for KL Rahul’s wicket a couple of deliveries later in the same over, with specialist wicketkeeper Ben Foakes putting down a chance that he would go on to regret later.

With Gill not looking entirely confident after the first over of the second day and Rahul having just survived a dismissal scare, the momentum was beginning to tilt in England’s favour. Another wicket or two at this stage, and India would have been under real pressure and the visitors might have even fancied the prospect of restricting their opponents to a score in the same range as the one that they ended up putting on the board.

As it happened: India vs England, 1st Test Day 2 in Hyderabad

And yet, the hosts ended the second day with 421 runs on the board and three wickets still in hand, finding themselves ahead of the Englishmen by a margin of 175 runs that already looks like a match-winning lead. This despite getting off to a shaky start, despite the likes of Gill and Shreyas Iyer throwing their wickets away with needless shots and Ravichandran Ashwin following Srikar Bharat back to the Indian dressing room shortly after making his way to the centre, after getting into a horrible mix-up with Jadeja.

English attack found wanting

Root did end the day as the pick of the English bowlers with figures of 2/77 at an economy of 3.20 though left-arm spinner Jack Leach would end the day as the most miserly of the lot at 2.16, conceding 54 from 26 overs with six maidens after having accounted for India skipper Rohit Sharma’s wicket on the opening day.

The remaining spinners, debutant Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed, however struggled with their lines and lengths for the better part of the day and ended up conceding more than a hundred runs each at economies of 5.24 and 4.56 respectively. And that is primarily where the Indian batters were not only able to wriggle out of tight situations, but somewhat out-bat their opponents with as many as three members of their lineup getting half-centuries and as many as six fifty-plus partnerships coming along the way.

Rehan, in particular, was primarily guilty of bowling a series of long hops that allowed the Indian batters, from Iyer and Rahul to Jadeja, a set of easy boundaries that only added to the visitors’ misery. Both Rehan and Hartley, who had conceded 63 runs in his first nine overs on Day 1, were also guilty of firing a handful of full tosses, once again letting the Indian batters get away instead of keeping them quiet with the kind of lines that Leach was able to hit more often than not.

England’s bowling badly exposed. Lack of quality and experience in spinners, only one pace bowler who was largely ignored, compounded by dropped catches. India have match by the scruff of the neck

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) January 26, 2024

This is not to say that the two did not have their moments on the second day. Hartley would open his account in international cricket by dismissing Shubman Gill and later denying Rahul a well-deserved century at home, his long hop getting smacked to the man at deep midwicket — the only boundary rider on the leg side. Rehan would later start asking some tough questions of the batters with his wrong ‘uns, especially the ones that stay lower than usual and took the likes of Jadeja by surprise.

Their inability to challenge the Indian batters consistently enough, however, resulted in England failing to capitalise on Root’s early strike, or Leach keeping things tidy at his end.

Read | Venkatapathy Raju explains how ENG can beat IND in spin game

Mark Wood was used sparsely on Day 1 and was introduced on the second to try and pepper Iyer with some of the short-pitched stuff that, combined with his express pace, would have been quite the lethal option to prise out his wicket.

Wood wasn’t quite getting the support from the Hyderabad wicket on Day 2 that he would have been accustomed to back home, with the ball not quite carrying all the way to the keeper the way it did for Jasprit Bumrah on Day 1. Rahul, additionally, also negotiated him perfectly with a series of well-timed pulls and tennis-like slaps to take the sting out of his bowling and ensure England skipper Stokes didn’t give him too long a spell.

One wonders if England missed Stokes’ handy seam-bowling, with the all-rounder not likely to bowl anytime soon thanks to a spate of injuries, or pace legend James Anderson, who has been benched for this Test — something that he isn’t really used to in what has been a glorious career spanning two decades.

Anderson was outstanding with the ball on a tricky Chennai wicket three years ago, collecting 3/17 as the Virat Kohli-led hosts were bowled out for 192, and crashed to a 227-run defeat. If Anderson could weave magic with the ball — old and new — back then, he certainly could have fared better than one of the inexperienced spinners who ended up leaking runs aplenty.

Joe Root’s bowling should make it easier for England to accommodate an extra seamer in their XI later in the series; no concerns about his ability to be third spinner in India

— Tim Wigmore (@timwig) January 26, 2024

England will have to manage with the resources at their disposal for now and hope they snuff out three quick wickets on Saturday and hope their ‘Bazball’ approach leads to a miracle of sorts in their second essay. Else, India appear to be walking away with this Test in their bag, which could result in this series following a very familiar script.