Leeds: Riding on brilliant centuries from skipper Shubman Gill and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, India punished a lacklustre England to reach a formidable 359-3 for three at stumps on the first day of the opening Test of the five-match series in Leeds on Friday.
Gill (127 not out) and wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant (65 not out) were at the crease.
Jaiswal brought up his 5th hundred in Test cricket off 144 balls while Gill's hundred came off 140 deliveries; an innings peppered with 16 boundaries and a six in his first outing as India Test captain.
A lost toss, a duck for debutant B. Sai Sudharsan and packed stands egging the home side on notwithstanding, the Indian top-order feasted on a true batting wicket, the kind of which Ben Stokes’ men wanted in the lead-up and something that still keeps them in the contest.
Gill was typically resplendent, scoring his sixth ton and the first outside the sub-continent. But the foundation was laid by Yashasvi Jaiswal (101, 159b, 16x4, 1x6) and the Mumbaikar’s 91-run first-wicket association with the classy K.L. Rahul (42, 78b, 8x4).
Jaiswal’s innings was an apt summation of the day’s cricket. The 23-year-old took 96 balls to get to his fifty but just 48 more for his fifth Test century and a first in the Old Blighty. He now has hundreds in the West Indies, India, Australia and England, resembling a quiver full of golden arrows.
Jaiswal fetched his hundred with a scampered single off Brydon Carse, after hammering him for successive boundaries through point and cover, and celebrated with a roar and leap into the air.
England might see this innings as an ominous sign from Jaiswal, who could replicate that 712-run series against them in India last year.
It was not a typical Jaiswal innings where he simply flayed the bowlers around, but he showed admirable self-restraint, particularly outside the off-stump.
The left-hander was dismissed in that channel a couple of times while playing for India A against the England Lions in the recent tour matches, but here the 23-year-old did not repeat his mistakes.
Gill, on the other hand, did not waver much from his normal batting doctrine, playing shots with minimum follow-through through the on-side and with a flourish on the off-side.
The 25-year-old's languid grace wowed the crowd when he essayed an off-drive off Chris Woakes and followed it up with a dreamy clip off the pads for a four as currently England's second most experienced bowler went for nearly five runs an over across the first two sessions.
Earlier, openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal helped India make a confident start to a long tour, but England struck back with late wickets as the visitors went to lunch at 92 for two.
Rahul (42) and Jaiswal (42 not out) made the England attack look pedestrian until the former and debutant B Sai Sudharsan (0) got out in the final moments of the first session. Agencies
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