India were reduced to 33/3 in the first 45 minutes of day one, before Rohit made 131 off 196 balls, hitting 14 fours and three sixes, in his 11th Test century. He added 204 runs for the fourth wicket with Ravindra Jadeja, who made 112, to get India’s innings back on track.

Coming out to bat at number six, Sarfaraz played a sparkling knock of 62 off 66 balls, laced with nine fours and a six in his first Test innings, while sharing a stand of 77 with Jadeja for the fifth wicket.

Ashwin (37) and Jurel (46) added 77 runs for the eighth-wicket stand, followed by Bumrah making 26 at the end to take India to a strong total. With turn in the pitch, India will fancy their chances with the ball, though they will be concerned over how much bowling overs they will get out of Mohammed Siraj, who injured his right knee while batting.

For England, speedster Mark Wood took four wickets while other bowlers were amongst the scalps. The visitors’, though, would rue their dropped catches and not using the DRS diligently. They will begin their innings from 5/0, via the penalty runs India were fined due to Ashwin and Jadeja running on the danger area of the pitch.

Resuming from 331/7, India added only 62 runs in the morning session. James Anderson struck in the fourth over of the session after getting a faint edge of night watchman Kuldeep Yadav’s bat to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes. In the next over, Jadeja chipped a tame drive straight back to part-time off-spinner Joe Root, falling for 112.

With two new fresh batters, England went to Mark Wood’s thunderbolts, and Ashwin got off the mark with a beautiful punch through cover for four. He tried to bounce out Jurel, who arched back and ramped over slips for six.

Ashwin continued to hit lovely drives and cuts for boundaries, while Jurel looked solid and cleverly glanced and drove in the gap to get his runs, as making 400+ now looks a realistic target for India.

The only blip for India though was Ashwin running into the danger area while facing Rehan Ahmed in the 102nd over, which led to on-field umpire Joel Wilson fining India with a five-run penalty.

Post lunch, Ashwin continued to get boundaries via on-drive and glance, even as Jurel was dropped twice on 32 by Ollie Pope at mid-wicket and by Ben Stokes at leg-slip. England finally held on to a chance when Ashwin miscued a loft off Rehan Ahmed and was caught by a forward-diving mid-on.

Jurel delighted with his sixes over mid-wicket and mid-off, but his attempt to go for a late-cut against a flatter and wide delivery from Ahmed resulted in Foakes taking a brilliant low catch. Bumrah sparkled with his slogs over mid-on yielding a four and six, followed by beautiful lofted drive over cover for a boundary.

Siraj was hit on the top of his knee while going for a reverse-sweep off Tom Hartley, and changed the out decision to not-out via DRS. In the next over, he again got treatment from the physio due to the pain from the blow on the knee. Wood then trapped Bumrah lbw with a slower delivery to end India’s innings.

Brief Scores: India 445 in 130.5 overs (Rohit Sharma 131, Ravindra Jadeja 112; Mark Wood 4-114, Rehan Ahmed 2-85) against England

Gill’s place in the Indian team had come under threat, owing to a string of poor performances. However, the youngster performed at the right moment to reach the triple-digit score. He survived two close DRS calls in successive overs soon after his arrival into the middle to post his first fifty-plus score in 13 innings.

As per reports in some section of media, after Shubman Gill’s two-ball duck in the second innings of the Hyderabad Test, the team management had given him an ultimatum that Visakhapatnam would be his last chance to retain the No.3 spot in India’s Test team.

The report further stated that there was a conversation around Gill that he could have been sent to domestic cricket to work on his flaws with a week’s gap between the second and Third Test tin Rajkot.

Had Gill not fought his critics back with a valuable hundred in the second innings in Visakhapatnam, he could have flown to Mohali. Punjab are hosting Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy in Mohali starting from February 9.

Gill had amassed only 153 runs in his last nine innings with the highest score of 36 and his place was under immense scrutiny. His vulnerability against both spin and seam movement was fully exposed. However, the century will give him the world of confidence and time to correct those technical frailties.

The emphatic win would not have been possible without the special effort of skipper Rohit (87 off 101 balls), whose sublime knock stood out as most Indian batters fell by the wayside on a two-paced pitch.

Suryakumar Yadav (49) got the much needed runs in the death overs to push India to 229 for nine.

Shami (4/22) and Bumrah (3/32) stole the show with the ball for the unstoppable hosts as England batters once against cut a sorry figure as they slumped to 129 all out in 34.5 overs for their fifth loss in six games.

England are virtually out of semifinal contention while India, the only unbeaten side in the tournament, are almost there.

Having put up a below par total, India needed early wickets to put pressure on a struggling England batting unit. Bumrah and Shami hunted in tandem to deal a decisive blow, leaving England at 39 for four in the 10th over.

Play and miss was a regular feature of the powerplay as both Bumrah and Shami troubled the batters with a Test match length.

Bumrah got rid of Dawid Malan (16) and Joe Root (0) off successive balls to be on a hat-trick while Shami also did the same by castling Jonny Bairstow (14) and Ben Stokes (0), who had a moment of brain fade after being beaten multiples time.

Stokes wanted to make room to smash Shami out of the park but got himself in a nothing position to see his stumps rattled. Bumrah and Shami’s first spell figures read an envious 5-1-17-2 and 4-0-5-2 respectively.

Kuldeep Yadav made it 52 for five by dismissing skipper Jos Buttler (10) with a stunning ball that pitched way outside the off stump and turned back sharply to crash the stumps.

Shami came back into the attack and had Moeen Ali (15) caught behind for his third wicket. At 81 for six, there was no coming back for a clueless England.

There was plenty of dew on the park in the evening but it wasn’t an issue for the India bowlers.

Earlier, India got to bat first for the first time in the tournament. It was, however, only Rohit and Suryakumar who found a way to bat on a tricky pitch that had a two-paced wicket while the others perished trying to force the pace.

The 91-run partnership between Rohit and K L Rahul (39 off 58) stabilised the innings after India found themselves at 40 for three in the 12th over.

Rohit also added 33 valuable runs with Suryakumar but the skipper’s fall led to a clutch of wickets.

England were finally able to put together an effort worthy of defending champions, excelling both with the ball and in the field.

Chris Woakes (2/33) impressed in his seven-over spell with the new ball while leggie Adil Rashid (2/35) continued to collect wickets in the middle overs. David Willey (3/45) too was effective.

Application was going to be the key on the relaid red soil pitch here and Rohit put up a masterclass.

After consuming six dot balls in the first over of the game bowled by Willey, the India skipper released the pressure by smashing the left-arm pacer for a couple of sixes and a four in his following over.

Rohit used the feet both against the pacers and spinners to manufacture the boundaries but the likes of Virat Kohli (0 off 9 balls) and Shreyas Iyer (4 off 16) departed while searching for that pressure release shot.

It was a rare duck for Kohli, who tried to step out like Rohit only to mistime his shot to Stokes at mid-off.

Shreyas was sent back by Woakes off a perfectly placed short of length ball that got big on the India number four. Clearly, Shreyas needs to fight the demon in his head to improve his short ball play.

Woakes had struggled for accuracy thus far in World Cup but delivered on Sunday.

With three batters dismissed for 40, the onus was on Rohit to take the innings forward and he did with a lot of class.

After stepping out the fast bowlers, Rohit displayed his artistry against the spin trio of Rashid, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali.

He swept Rashid, reverse-swept Livingstone and came down the track to loft Moeen over mid-off for three of the 10 fours he struck. His pick-up shot off Mark Wood that went all the way was also sublime.

In Hardik Pandya’s absence, India fielded five bowlers again but R Ashwin remained out of the playing eleven.

A strong 46000 crowd was in attendance to support the home team.

While Addressing a virtual media conference on Wednesday, India coach Rahul Dravid informed that Rohit Sharma’s second RT-PCR Test has also come positive .So there is no chance of coming back to the squad of this Indian opener for the England tour.

The selection committee, headed by Chetan Sharma, reportedly determined that the team chosen for the Ireland T20Is will play the series opener against England due to the short turnaround between the final day of the Test and the first T20I.

With the first Test scheduled to finish on July 5 and the first T20I scheduled for July 7 in Southampton, the selection committee has decided that the star players to give a three-day recovery period before they are picked from the second game .

“Once they are well rested, all of them will be a part of the regular white ball side but most of the players in Ireland will remain till the end of T20I series.” According to a source in the BCCI.

So The Squad for Ireland series will play first T20I against England. And then from the second T20I, all the stars (Rohit, if fit, Kohli, Bumrah, Pant, Jadeja) will make a comeback.

On July 1 and July 3, while the Test match is taking place, India is also slated to play two T20 warm-up games. This makes it very clear that the team who triumphed in the Ireland series will play in these matches as well. In the two warm-up games, the visitors will compete against Derbyshire and Northamptonshire, respectively. When the team for the limited-overs portion of the England tour will be formally announced by the selectors is still to be determined.

India’s second-string team defeated Ireland 2-0 in the T20I series under the leadership of Hardik Pandya. The hosts were within four runs of winning the 2nd game but they fell just short.

India are scheduled to clash with England in three T20Is, three ODIs and the 5th and the final Test of the unfinished series.

India Tour of England Schedule:

India vs Derbyshire T20: July 1

India vs England 5th Test – July 1-5 @ Birmingham

India vs Northamptonshire: July 3

IND vs ENG 1st T20: July 7 @ Southampton

IND vs ENG 2nd T20: July 9 @ Birmingham

IND vs ENG 3rd T20: July 10 @ Nottingham

IND vs ENG 1st ODI: July 12 @ Kennington Oval

IND vs ENG 2nd ODI: July 14 @ Lord’s

IND vs ENG 3rd ODI: July 17 @ Manchester

By Nilanchal Naik