England vs India 2018, 1st Test: Turning points for India from Day 1
An absorbing day of Test cricket concluded at Edgbaston with neither side gaining an obvious advantage. India at stumps, however, would believe that they have drawn first blood. Having been put into field first on what felt like a batting surface, Indian bowlers took home the honors, especially in the post-tea session when they went on a rampage and wreaked havoc on the English middle order.
In this piece, we have a look at some critical moments that enabled India to have the last laugh on Day 1.
Shami's twin strikes
England were flourishing at 98 for 1 when Shami delivered two killer blows to rock the hosts. Keaton Jennings along with his skipper, Joe Root, had put in the hard yards of negotiating the new ball and looked set for well-deserved fifties. To his utter agony, Jennings played a short-ish delivery back onto his stumps: the ball rolled to the ground after clipping his inner pad and then spun back to hit the off-stump.
Shami, who was going through a terrific passage of play, emerged with another breakthrough, four overs later. Dawid Malan was pinned in front of the stumps and although it looked reasonably high to the naked eye, hawk-eye suggested that it would have gone on to hit the stumps. Malan's poor run of form in home Tests continued as Shami struck twice to deliver the goods for India and put the match in the balance.
Joe Root's run-out
The day-defining (probably the series-defining) moment occurred in the post-tea session. At 216-3 with Root well set and Bairstow counterattacking the Indian bowlers, England were wonderfully poised for a strong finish. Virat Kohli, though, had other ideas. Bairstow languidly nudged an Ashwin delivery to the mid-wicket region and scurried through. Root responded to Bairstow's "two two" call which, frankly speaking, was a shocker.
Kohli, who was casually pursuing the ball, might have heard the fielders' and the batsmen's frantic shouts in the background which prompted him to pick the ball up and make a quick, under-arm release from nearly outside the circle. It looked dead accurate the moment it left his hand. Root's desperate dive was in vain and he had to walk off fuming.
A couple of flying kisses here, a mimic of the bat/mic drop there and Kohli had a perfect send-off for the English skipper. The run-out then triggered a horrendous collapse for the Poms as it all went downhill from there.
Tail fails to wag
At 223-5, England would have felt slightly troubled but the presence of a tail that could wag silenced those concerns. Jos Buttler, England's best batsman of the summer by a country mile, was at the crease with Ben Stokes. A batting revival was just around the corner but soft dismissals and poor shot selection cost them dearly.
Buttler played straight to an Ashwin delivery that could easily have been played across to mid-wicket and was subsequently given lbw. Stokes played across to a delivery that could easily have been managed with a straight bat and lobbed up the most effortless of caught & bowled dismissals to the off-spinner. England were left reeling at 243-7 with the prospect of achieving a handsome first-innings total looking all but a fantasy.