The first Test between England and India at Headingley has concluded, with England winning it by five wickets. We look back on the five key moments of the test.
India’s Batters Find Form
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Despite the loss at Leeds, it was good to see India’s top order find form early on in the series, with five centuries for their top-order batsmen.
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Rishabh Pant was a star with 134 in the first innings and 118 in the second.
Shubman Gill got 147 in his first test as captain. Perhaps that will give him the confidence to lead the team to a better future.
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KL Rahul also chipped in with 42 in the first innings and a brilliant 137 in the second.
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But what will concern India is the lower-order batting, as the last five wickets yielded just 24 runs in the first innings, and 31 in the second.
Perhaps that is what India will look to fix in the next four matches, particularly when they look to drive home the advantage with the bat.
Delightful Duckett Delivers
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THE Notts Outlaws batter is such a tough batter to bowl at, particularly if you give him a life, as Yashasvi Jaiswal did in the second innings, when he was on 97.
Duckett is a 360 player, which means he can score runs in all parts of the ground, at quite a rapid pace.
Since the Bazball era started, Duckett and Zak Crawley have averaged 48.82 as an opening pair and have scored their runs at a rapid pace.
Duckett made India pay for their sloppiness with the ball in this game; they need to get him out as soon as possible in the remaining matches.
Shoddy Fielding Costs India
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The primary reason why India capitulated to their defeat was due to their poor fielding, especially the eight dropped catches.
Five of those were in the first innings, and three in the second.
Of course, no one ever means to drop a catch, but those were all match-defining, and had the Men In Blue managed to snaffle at least four or five of those chances, we may have possibly seen a different outcome of this match.
You could also say that India has a relatively new slip cordon, with the likes of Jaiswal and Karun Nair replacing Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who were both excellent slip catchers.
Perhaps as the series progresses, they will improve in this aspect, as they will need to do so to get back into it.
Tongue Delivers Knockout Blow
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Before this series, one of England’s major issues has been the ability to mop up the tail.
But in this game, it was the Nottinghamshire pacer who was able to deliver the knockout blow in both innings.
His 4-86 in the first innings restricted India to 471, after they were 430-3.
He also took 3-72 in the second innings, restricting the tourists to 364 from 333-5.
You could argue that some of the shots played by the middle to lower order were questionable, as in whether it was the right time to play that shot.
Shardul Thakur’s dismissal in the first innings sums this up, as he and Ravindra Jadeja were the last two players who were very capable of scoring runs with the bat.
What the dismissal did was allow England to restrict the flow of runs by India, as Jadeja was stranded with the three fast bowlers, who are number 11s.
If India is going to win this Series, they will need contributions lower down the order to give some rest bite to their top order, especially if they lose early wickets.
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