After opting to bat in the first-ever Test match in Visakhapatnam, India got off to a dreadful start, losing both openers in the first five overs. KL Rahul was dismissed for his first blob in Test cricket, edging Stuart Broad to the left side of third slip, while Murali Vijay fended a short delivery from the returning Jimmy Anderson to be caught at gully.
At 22-2, it appeared England had negated the home team’s advantage of winning the toss. A wicket or two at that stage, and it would have most definitely been a situation of England calling the shots.
But then came Cheteshwar Pujara and captain Virat Kohli, and the scales tilted towards India. Virat, whose record against England pales in comparison to his career numbers, didn’t waste time to make a statement; his first scoring stroke was a fluent drive through the off-side – that too off his nemesis Jimmy Anderson.
He was seldom forced into playing a false stroke – like the top-edged boundary in the ninth over – but for most part of his innings Virat was in absolute control; until stumps were drawn at the end of the first day’s play, he only edged or was beaten on 16 occasions in his 241-ball stay in the middle.
While those numbers by themselves are impressive, what was also encouraging from an Indian point of view was the captain’s body language in the middle.
The captain was set for a long haul – he consumed 23 balls to score the ten runs that would get him to his 14th Test century. But when he got there, the celebrations were pretty muted – and that indicated that he was hungry for more. Virat’s century was his seventh as India’s Test captain – just as many as Sachin Tendulkar had scored in the 25 Tests he was in charge of the Indian Test team.
The England players should have known prior to the Test match that a big one from Virat was due – given his love affair with the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Prior to this match, his scores in international matches at Vizag read: 118, 117, 99 and 65.
At the other end, there was Pujara, who was solid as expected, but who also ensured the strike kept ticking over so the captain at the other end didn’t get frustrated for want of strike. By the time they were separated, Pujara and Kohli had added 226 runs – which was among India’s biggest 3rd wicket partnerships in Test matches against England. To put in context the partnership between Pujara and Kohli, India had gone 42 innings against England previously without their third wicket pair adding 100 or more.
While Pujara dominated the partnership contributing 117 runs from 200 balls, Virat’s contribution stood at 107 runs from 171 balls. The partnership was broken in the 67th over, when almost at an unexpected time, Pujara played only his tenth false shot in the innings, and edged one from Anderson to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow. Pujara, who got to his tenth Test century with a six and therefore now has scored a century in each of his last three Test matches - was dismissed for 119 – made from 204 balls.
England clawed their way back into the match thereafter, picking up the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane in the dying minutes of the day. India finished the day at 317-4, with captain Kohli (151*) having the company of Ravichandran Ashwin (1*) on the walk back to the dressing room.
One will see that the two teams were placed in identical situations at the end of the first day’s play in the two Test matches played in the series. At Rajkot, England opted to bat, were powered by Joe Root and Moeen Ali and reached 311-4 at stumps on Day I. At Vizag, India are sitting pretty at 317-4 with captain Kohli looking set for yet another big score. Indian cricket fans will hope the captain can go and make it a huge score on Friday and help India post a mammoth first innings total.