The first test between England and India at Southampton ended after rain ruined the penultimate day’s play. After a narrow first day, the rain on day two destroyed the final day’s play, meaning that England were unlucky to have a draw in this series.
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Eoin Morgan’s England Red Rose team failed to get the job done. They could have beaten India by a large margin of runs in the first Test, but they let themselves down in the last two three days. India piled up 1,197 runs on the last three days, and although the rain played a part in spoiling the final day, England failed to reply.
| England 183 (Root 64; Bumrah 4-46) & 303 (Root 109, Bumrah 5-64) |
| India 278 (Rahul 84, Robinson 5-85) & 52-1 |
| Drawn match |
| Scorecard |
After the first Test against India was abandoned as a draw, England captain Joe Root claimed the weather “robbed us all.”
The possibility of all four outcomes on Sunday morning at Trent Bridge was thwarted by persistent rain, which hindered what might have been a fantastic finale.
India were favorites at 52-1 to chase down 209, but skipper Joe Root’s stunning fourth-day century gave England a chance.
“I’d be lying if I said India wasn’t in the driver’s seat coming into today,” Root remarked.
“We’d have had nine opportunities to make a surface like that, in my opinion. Things might have changed rapidly in our favor.”
Wet weather pushed back the start time to 11:00 BST and continued to do so throughout the day.
After a brief dry spell, an inspection was scheduled for 14:30, but the rain returned, and the match was called off at 15:50.
India skipper Virat Kohli stated, “We were in a fantastic position to take a shot at the objective.”
“It would have been a fun and exciting Test match. It was terrible that the weather turned out to be so bad.”
On Thursday, the second Test of the five-match series starts at Lord’s.
England is able to flee.
Even though Root’s brilliance gave England some chance of victory, they were bowled out for 183 in the first innings, so this is really a lucky escape.
Their batting is vulnerable without Root: they have been dismissed for fewer than 200 runs in eight of their last 13 Test innings.
Most of the current top six will believe their position in the team is in jeopardy, with Zak Crawley, who has averaged just 11 points in Tests this season, seeming to be the most susceptible.
“Zak is a really powerful character,” Root remarked. “When he gets out there, he needs to be thinking about how he can apply it to his game.”
“He has shown to everyone that he is capable of performing at this level. He has to make sure he believes in it the next time he goes out there.”
Haseeb Hameed has a chance to make the top three, while Ollie Pope seems to be in good shape for Lord’s. Only two of Pope, Jonny Bairstow, and Dan Lawrence are likely to be selected.
“We’ll speak about selection in the coming days and have great clarity heading into the second Test,” Root added.
England’s shaky batting makes it difficult to compensate for the loss of Ben Stokes, the talismanic all-rounder who has taken an extended sabbatical from cricket to concentrate on his mental health.
In a four-man attack, England has been without a specialist spinner in the absence of Stokes.
A return for Moeen Ali, who can bowl off-breaks and bat in the top seven, might be one option, but fellow spinners Jack Leach and Dom Bess were favoured when the first Test team was picked.
Any choice to add left-armer Leach or the extra speed of Mark Wood at Lord’s would almost certainly come at the cost of Stuart Broad or Sam Curran if England sticks with four bowlers.
India refuted the claim.
India dominated this match, but were denied the chance to win a series opener in the United Kingdom for the first time since 1986.
Kohli told Sport, “I felt we were 70-30 ahead going into day five.”
“We were happy with how things had gone thus far. With the bat, the ball, and on the field, we were unstoppable. Going into the second Test of the series, we are completely confident.”
KL Rahul looked confident with scores of 84 and 26 after injuries ruled out openers Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal. This answered the greatest concern India had about their batting line-up.
They have an abundance of riches in terms of bowlers, to the extent that mesmeric off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who has 413 Test wickets, was left out of this match.
Ishant Sharma, the pace bowler who bowled India to victory at Lord’s in 2014, suffered a hand injury but practiced in Nottingham before the game.
On their most recent trip in 2018, India was very competitive, and a 4-1 win against England was an understatement.
There will be concerns about India’s batting line-ability up’s to regularly stand up to English conditions until they are proved differently, but the visitors will go into this series as favorites.
Which team came the closest to winning?
“This will certainly go down as a very disappointing day for India,” says former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta on Test Match Special.
“They had a decent opportunity of victory with 157 on the board and nine wickets in hand.”
“Lord’s will be a huge chance for England’s batting line-up,” says former England captain Michael Vaughan. They must enter the Ashes with some runs on the board.
“I believe England will make two changes: Dan Lawrence will be replaced by Ollie Pope, and Zak Crawley will be replaced by Haseeb Hameed.”
Rain ruined the final day of the first Test between England and India in Rajkot, with the visitors declaring on 381-6 at stumps on the third day, after the hosts were bowled out for 203 on the first day and 122 on the second. Despite the uneven start to the day, India were forced into a draw as England had made a poor start to the day, with late wickets falling in the final hour, despite containing the hosts with a lead.. Read more about cricket scores and let us know what you think.