Day one of the second Test between India and England ended in an even manner, with the hosts sat on 300-6.
Rohit Sharma was the backbone of India’s innings – hitting a sublime 161 on the Chennai surface that is only going to become trickier to bat on as the days wear on.
India made three changes from their first Test defeat with Akshar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammad Siraj replacing Jasprit Bumrah, Shahbaz Nadeem and Washington Sundar.
England maintained the rotation policy that was much-talked about before the game with four changes made as Stuart Broad, Ben Foakes, Olly Stone and Moeen Ali replacing Jos Buttler, Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer and Dom Bess.
This was the first match in India since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to have fans in and around 15,000 tickets were allocated.
India won the toss, electing to bat first, but it was Stone – playing in only his second Test match – who got the tourists off to a flyer.
The Warwickshire man trapped opener Subman Gill with a superb delivery in his first over to silence the home crowd. Gill departed for a duck for the second game in a row, leaving India 0-1 inside just two overs.
Cheteshwar Pujara came in and consolidated India’s innings with opener Rohit looking very comfortable, and consistently finding boundaries.
The pair began to frustrate England before a breakthrough finally came from Jack Leach.
The Somerset spinner sent a delivery to Pujara that he could only nick to Ben Stokes in the slips, as he departed for 21.
So, in came India’s talisman Virat Kohli – who was desperate to put the bed the demons after his uninspiring first innings from the last Test.
Unfortunately for him, he would barely get a chance to do so as he lasted just five balls without scoring. He was undone by an incredible delivery from Moeen, playing his first Test since the 2019 Ashes.
Kohli, however, refused to walk claiming keeper Foakes had knocked the bails off as opposed to the ball.
An umpire review quickly quashed the India captains claims and he eventually walked back to the pavilion.
India all of a sudden were 86-3 and the momentum was switching back in England’s favour as lunch was on the horizon.
This could be told by the eerie silence from the crowd, almost as if this game was also behind closed doors.
Despite two wickets in quick succession, Rohit continued to frustrate the tourists and a sixth Test match century loomed.
With Ajinkya Rahane looking comfortable at the other end, this allowed India to recover and go in at the lunch break 106-3.
Rohit reached his sixth Test match century, and his first against England, not long after lunch and it looked as if it was going to require something special to get the opener out who was in superb nick.
A dominant session for the hosts saw them reach the tea break without losing another wicket, leaving England facing what looked like an almighty task to gain an edge in the game.
Rahane fired himself to his half century and with Rohit reaching his 150, India looked determined to level the series immediately.
Finally, a breakthrough came for England as the two spinners Leach and Moeen combined to remove Rohit for a superb 161.
Then came a massive moment of controversy.
A Leach delivery appeared to have come off the glove of Rahane, but the on-field umpire signalled not out.
England captain Joe Root sent the decision upstairs, but the third umpire failed to play the entire replay.
This led to much confusion on the pitch with Root and the other England players complaining about the situation with the replay.
The third umpire then proceeded to show ball tracking for an lbw appeal, despite this not being what Root had appealed for.
Eventually the decision was given not out – much to the confusion and anger of England who demanded that the entire replay was played back.
Further replays showed that the ball had clearly hit Rahane on the glove, meaning the decision would have been out had the umpires shown the full replay.
Despite initially losing their second review for this, it was shortly reinstated after Moeen clean bowled Rahane just an over later.
With these two quick wickets, India found themselves at 249-5 and England were right back in the game.
However, with Rishabh Pant at the crease – who had really targeted Leach in the first Test – England knew they had to get him quickly.
Pant continued from where he left off and targeted both spinners, hitting them for maximums.
Towards the end of the day, there was still time for England to take their sixth wicket as Ravichandran Ashwin picked out Ollie Pope at short leg, giving Root a rare wicket of his own.
Axar Patel and Pant added 16 runs to the score, taking India to 300-6 at stumps.
With a day that switched between both sides England may be frustrated at not picking up wickets sooner but they will be happy with how they fought back.
They will hope to pick up quick wickets tomorrow, particularly the key one of Pant.
As for India, they can feel happy with the position they are in and will hope to accelerate and post a competitive total for England to respond to.
Play will resume tomorrow at 4am UK time, live on Channel 4.
By Josh Mann
