Key events
“Morning Rob,” says Felix Wood. “When waking several hours before the alarm is due to go off my go-to to get back to sleep is not counting sheep but picturing a batsman playing for an inevitable draw on a late summer’s day. A series of easy defences, pushing the ball into the covers. This works far better than counting sheep, except when there’s actual cricket on, in which case it just reminds me of that and I’m forced to get up and watch it. I can only see this getting worse as I get older.
“Anyway, what’s the thinking with Hartley here? He doesn’t look at all like taking a wicket and is an easy five and a half runs an over. Is the Bazball thinking to just accept a deficit and keep the other spinners fresh for the second innings in the hope the pitch gets worse and India are chasing an even slightly challenging target?”
I don’t think it’s that, as freshness is rarely an issue for spinners. I suspect it’s a combination of stubbornness and support, maybe a bit of data too.
Lunch: India trail by 24 runs
India’s session, and you’ll be reading that phrase a few times in the next month. It started perfectly for England when Joe Root dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first over of the day. Tom Hartley picked up his first Test wicket when the unconvincing Shubman Gill dragged to midwicket, but they couldn’t dismiss a vulnerable Shreyas Iyer early on and now the game is getting away from them.
KL Rahul, who was dropped on 0 by Ben Foakes (though it probably wouldn’t have been out because the umpire gave a leg-bye), otherwise played the Kohli role superbly.
England bowled too many bad balls, in truth, and not enough good ones. There were a couple of headscratchers: Jack Leach bowled only two overs all morning, and the pitch seemed much more benign than yesterday. ‘Seemed’ is the operative word, because India weren’t bowling on it.
50th over: India 222-3 (Rahul 55, Shreyas 34) Root moves back over the wicket and skids one past Shreyas’s outside edge. He started the session with a wicket, but he can’t end it with one. That’s lunch.
49th over: India 217-3 (Rahul 51, Shreyas 33) Shreyas under-edges a wide ball from Rehan that bounces to hit Foakes in the grille. He’s fine. And so, after a nervous start, is Shreyas; he ends the over by scrunching a fast-handed boundary down the ground.
Meanwhile, West Indies have reduced Australia to 24-4 at the Gabbatoir.
48th over: India 212-3 (Rahul 50, Shreyas 29) Joe Root replaces Tom Hartley. His third ball is slightly too short, allowing Shreyas to skip back and batter a boundary through the covers. That brings up an increasingly assured fifty partnership.
And off the last ball of the over, Rahul takes a single to reach a serene, stylish half-century from 72 balls. It’s far too early to say he has finally cracked it, but he does look in superb touch right now.
47th over: India 205-3 (Rahul 48, Shreyas 24) There’s so much to like about Rehan Ahmed, not least that he’s a teenage English legspinner, and Ravi Shastri is being very complimentary on commentary. He has looked quite threatening in this spell, and there are a few oohs and aahs when Shreyas takes a googly off his pads at the last minute.
46th over: India 203-3 (Rahul 47, Shreyas 23) Shreyas gets a leading edge off Hartley that lands safely. Hartley comes painfully close to his first Test maiden, only for Shreyas to push a single off the last ball.
I’d love to know Stokes’ thought process here. Hartley has bowled 11 overs today to Leach’s two. He’s England’s greatest-ever cricketer, with a cricket IQ of 180+, so he can do what he likes. It’s just interesting.
West Indies are brawling in Brisbane, where Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne have fallen inside the first two overs. Martin Pegan has more.
45th over: India 202-3 (Rahul 47, Shreyas 22) Rahul can’t punish a loopy full toss from Rehan, but there’s plenty of runs to go round later in the over. India are well on top now. It’s interesting that the pitch hasn’t turned that much today; hard to know whether that’s down the heavy roller, the bowling or something else. I bet it will turn when Ashwin and Jadeja bowl again.
44th over: India 198-3 (Rahul 46, Shreyas 19) Hartley has changed ends to replace Wood. I wonder what Jack Leach, who has bowled only two overs today, makes of it all. Or Root for that matter, as he’s been England’s best bowler today.
Hartley is milked for three low-risk singles, which gives him updated figures of 19-0-96-1.
43rd over: India 195-3 (Rahul 44, Shreyas 18) Rehan Ahmed comes on for Tom Hartley. He starts superbly to Shreyas, who is beaten by the first ball and edges the second just short of Root at slip. But when the bad ball comes, and it usually does with teenager leggies, Shreyas rocks back to smash a one-bounce four to cow corner.
42nd over: India 191-3 (Rahul 44, Shreyas 14) This is Wood’s fourth over, so it might be the last of this spell. Shreyas looks a bit more comfortable – okay, a bit less uncomfortable – and the over passes without incident.
41st over: India 189-3 (Rahul 43, Shreyas 13) Ouch. A half-tracker from Hartley is pulled savagely for six by Shreyas. Hartley has bowled a bit better today but not well enough to justify being given as many overs as the other three spinners combined. He has figures of 18-0-93-1; the others have combined figures of 18-2-68-2.
40th over: India 181-3 (Rahul 43, Shreyas 5) Wood is starting to work Shreyas over: a lifter past the edge, a reverse inswinger that takes the inside-edge and thuds into the pad.
Shreyas is struggling – but England know that if he gets through this spell from Wood he could really hurt them.
39th over: India 179-3 (Rahul 42, Shreyas 4) It might be a trick of the mind, but Hartley’s control seems better since he took that wicket. There’s a precautionary run-out referral agaisnt the non-striker Iyer, though everyone kne he was home safely.
Iyer then comes down the track to hack a couple through midwicket. It would have been four but for a good stop by Rehan Ahmed.
38th over: India 175-3 (Rahul 41, Shreyas 1) Rahul takes a single off Wood’s first ball, thus exposing Shreyas. England make great play of setting a field for the short ball – and then Wood zips a fuller one past the outside edge. There’s a bit of an appeal for caught behind, and Stokes motions to review before realising he has none left. I don’t think he nicked it anyway.
The short ball comes soon enough. Shreyas avoids the first and muscles an awkward pull for a single off the second. Wood’s pace isn’t Ashes-level yet, peaking in the low rather than the mid 90s, but the stoppy nature of the pitch is making his bouncer tricky to line up.
37th over: India 173-3 (Rahul 40, Shreyas 0) Shreyas recoils in surprise after defending a ball from Hartley that may have stopped in the pitch. He plays out the rest of the over comfortably enough, which means Rahul will again be on strike at the start of Wood’s next over. First, a drinks break.
36th over: India 172-3 (Rahul 39, Shreyas 0) The new batter is Shreyas Iyer, so it’s no surprise to see Mark Wood come straight into the attack. Shreyas has had problems with the short ball.
KL Rahul is on strike to start. He inside edges the second ball past the stumps for four, then times the next exquisitely to the point boundary. That’s a gorgeous stroke. He makes it three boundaries in the over with a flap-pull round the corner – and, just as importantly, he ensures Wood doesn’t get a look at Shreyas. It’s exemplary batting because he knows Wood can’t bowl for long.
A reminder that Rahul was dropped on nought by Ben Foakes, although Ravi Shastri makes the point that he wouldn’t have been out anyway: the umpire gave a bye and England excreted their reviews yesterday evening.
35th over: India 159-3 (Rahul 25, Shreyas 0) That was an odd innings from Gill, 23 from 66 balls with little rotation of strike.
WICKET! India 159-3 (Gill c Duckett b Hartley 23)
Tom Hartley gets his first Test wicket! It’s another tame dismisal for Shubman Gill, who drags a half-volley straight to midwicket. England needed a wicket; Hartley really needed one.
Photograph: Mahesh Kumar A/AP
34th over: India 158-2 (Gill 23, Rahul 25) Leach is by far the most accurate of England’s four spinners, and England need a nice clean pitch map from him now. His second over is good, just a single from it.
The ball hasn’t turned much this morning. Sunil Gavaskar thinks it might be the effect of the roller, which should wear off as the day progresses.
33rd over: India 157-2 (Gill 23, Rahul 24) Hartley continues, so Root takes a break after a good spell of 4-0-14-1. Gill continues to play one immaculate forward defensive after another; he has 23 from 63 balls, Rahul 24 from 36. There’s more than one way to feed yourself.
32nd over: India 156-2 (Gill 23, Rahul 23) Jack Leach comes into the attack, but it’s in place of JR rather than Hartley. Maybe Root will change ends.
Leach’s second ball is a full toss that Gill flicks easily for four. England’s promising start feels like a thing of the past: since Stokes lost sight of that chance to dismiss Gill there have been 24 runs from four overs.
31st over: India 149-2 (Gill 18, Rahul 21) Hartley has bowled some good deliveries – as I type he skids one past Rahul’s attempted cut – but there has been no consistency of line and length. His figures is are 13-0-78-0, which is exactly a run a ball.
30th over: India 145-2 (Gill 16, Rahul 19) KL Rahul has started positively. Root drifts onto leg stump and is swept firmly past short fine leg for four. That aside it’s another good over; Root has bowled well.
It’s time to get Jack Leach on for Tom Hartley I think. You can understand Stokes wanting to support Hartley as much as possible, but this is such a key period in the game.
29th over: India 141-2 (Gill 16, Rahul 15) Rahul drives Hartley for successive boundaries through mid-on. Beautiful shots, but both deliveries were too full and too straight.
England have already missed chances to dismiss Gill and Rahul. The commentators all agree that Stokes must have lost that ball in the sun.
28th over: India 132-2 (Gill 16, Rahul 6) Rahul comes down the track, but Root sees him coming and spears it down the leg side. Rahul twists his bat desperately and gets a leading edge that drops short of Root.
Hang on, what happened there? Gill charges Root and launches a mishit into orbit, but Stokes at mid-on loses sight of the ball! Had he picked it up it would hve been a simple catch. I’m not sure I’ve seen that before, not in good light anyway.
27th over: India 127-2 (Gill 14, Rahul 3) It’s easy to forget, given their enormous ability, that Gill and Rahul are both under a bit of pressure. Their Test averages are unfathomably low, and Gill hasn’t passed 40 in his last nine innings. He is playing very carefully, which at least, from an England perspective, is allowing Hartley to settle into a rhythm. His figures today at 2-0-2-0.
Play has also resumed in Brisbane, where West Indies are 273 for eight against Australia. You can follow that with Martin Pegan.
26th over: India 126-2 (Gill 14, Rahul 2) Bairstow, lurking just off the cut strip at silly mid-on, fields a drive from Rahul and flings the ball to Foakes in the same movement. England have made an aggressive start.
25th over: India 125-2 (Gill 14, Rahul 1) Tom Hartley gets a vote of confidence from Ben Stokes. There are two right-handers now, and no Jaiswal, so he will hope to settle into the innings. It’s a good start, with just a single to Rahul off the last ball. Never mind a first Test wicket; Hartley’s still striving for his first Test maiden.
Oh my, Foakes did drop KL Rahul. It was a sharp chance by his right bicep, but he’s in the team to take those. “By Ben Foakes’ standards,” says Dinesh Karthik on commentary, “that’s a pretty easy catch.”
24th over: India 124-2 (Gill 14, Rahul 0) KL Rahul has moved to No4 in the absence of Virat Kohli. He’s a marvellous player, whose Test average of 33 is a minor scandal.
Root starts around the wicket and zips his second ball past the edge. Was that a dropped catch? There was a noise, and Foakes fumbled the ball, but we haven’t seen UltraEdge yet.
KP knows of what he speaks
Can Joe Root PLEASE bowl first up this morning!
He WIL spin the ball! 🙏🏽#INDvENG— Kevin Pietersen🦏 (@KP24) January 26, 2024
WICKET! India 123-2 (Jaiswal ct and b Root 80)
Joe Root strikes fourth ball! Jaiswal had already dragged him over mid-on for four, but it wasn’t the cleanest strike. He tried to go down the ground again and scuffed the ball back to Root, who leapt to take a very smart two-handed catch.
Joe Root, who was surprisingly unused yesterday, will open the bowling to Yashasvi Jaiswal.
The players are almost ready to go. India are in a huddle, with Rohit Sharma delivering the message. It’s the biggest session of the series so far an important morning; England probably need at least three wickets before lunch.
Tom Hartley made his debut, and it says something about the 24-year-old’s current standing that if you type his name into Google – at least in the UK – the top result is a luxury car dealership in Derbyshire.
Bazball Masterclass: Taking the Positives
Read Ali Martin’s day one report
Preamble
Morning one, morning all. Reality has a healthy set of molars, doesn’t it? We all know how hard India away would be, yet it still bit hard when they got stuck into Tom Hartley yesterday evening. India will resume on 119 for one, a deficit of 127 on a pitch that is day two in name, day four in nature.
With these players on this surfacee, anything is possible on this surface: an England fightback, a two-day Test, a Yashasvi Jaiswal double-hundred. The only thing we know for sure is that the game will move pretty fast.