“Fabulous advert for the game of cricket, isn’t it?”
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This was just my second game, and obviously there are going to be ups and downs.
Asked what was the team strategy on Saturday morning, Ashwin said: “To try and probably stick together and be behind every one who walks out to bat”.
India got off to a near ideal start with the opening duo of Murali Vijay (20) and Shikhar Dhawan (26) putting on a 50-run stand – the first fifty-plus opening stand for India in England after 18 innings. Maybe three and three – six days off. “We can get him out”, he said.
I’m really proud of the group.
“The series is set up nicely now”. Though Ganguly praised his batting, he suggested that Kohli should trust his players a bit more and give them longer runs in the XI.
Sam’s brothers Tom and Ben are also cricketers, with the former having played two Tests for England as well as part of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ set-up in the Indian Premier League. If they had been looking for motivation, they had in the man leading them but not a single player seemed inclined to share responsibilities with the skipper.
The Indian bowlers did their job in both the innings but the batsmen, with the exception of Kohli, let the team down again. With the off-spinner Ashwin making an impact while opening the bowling, the additional choice of Kuldeep Yadav could have put England on the back foot, especially given the fact that the likes of Cook, Jennings, Malan and Sam Curran had not been included in the eleven for the ODI and T20 series and had not played him before. “It’s going to be exciting for people to watch and just enjoy Test cricket over the next few weeks”.
Then – after Kohli’s brilliant 149 had hauled India back into the ascendancy – he rescued England’s second innings from calamity at 87 for 7 with a counterattacking 63 from 65 balls.
But in his first over after replacing James Anderson at the City End, Stokes had the India captain lbw playing across his pad for 51, and then doubled up with the wicket of Mohammed Shami – fencing a catch behind.
England will need “two or three guys to step up” for the absent Ben Stokes in the second Test against India at Lord’s, says coach Trevor Bayliss.
“I was thinking of making sure we didn’t give any boundaries away, and made it very hard for them to score freely”. “Throughout the game there were wickets falling left, right and centre”. India 1st innings: 274 and 110 for 5 in 36 overs (V Kohli 43 batting, D Karthik 18 batting; S Broad 2/29, B Stokes 1/25). Asked about that, the off-spinner said: “I have just chose to enjoy my cricket and stop reading about anything”.
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Team India has played a tour match before started the official Test and the tour match ended with draw against Essex.
