Number Nuggets- A Deep-dive analysis of 1st Test Match- England vs India 

What a great 1st test match we have had. It had everything we had expected from a perfect test match. Right from impressive captain's knock from both Virat Kohli and Joe Root to the superb spell of bowling from Ravichandran Ashwin, to an amazing spell of seam bowling from all the pacers to superb all-round display by Sam Curran.

Even though the England team won the match by a small margin, both the teams were equally good in all departments except for few up's and downs.

Ben Stokes celebrating the crucial wicket of Virat Kohli

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So, how did England manage to win this crucial encounter, and where did they find themselves holding an upper hand over India?

Let's find out in our deep-dive analysis of the first test match between England and India.

We wanted to analyze each and every aspect of the game, and that is the reason we deep-dived into the stats of each player and compared them with their opposition counterparts.

Let's first begin with Openers.

Openers:

It is said that a good start lays a foundation for a team to score big, but unfortunately, both the team's openers couldn't do that with effectiveness.

There isn't much to separate when it comes to the performance of both the team's openers in both the innings. Alastair Cook was done in by some brilliant ripper by Ashwin in both the innings. Jennings, Vijay, and Dhawan gave good starts, but couldn't capitalize.

Let's deep-dive into the numbers, and understand how both team's openers fared against each other.

Alastair Cook getting bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin

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1st Innings:

As seen from the stats, the openers from both the countries scored similar runs at a similar strike rate and average. The good thing about England openers was their ability to rotate strike, which was better as compared to the Indian openers.

Overall, the openers from both the team's weren't that much effective, and it is very hard to separate these two team's players.

England openers vs Indian openers- 1st Innings

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2nd Innings:

The second innings was even poor for both the team's openers with Indian openers performing slightly better.

England openers vs Indian openers- 2nd Innings

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I believe, both the team's openers could have done a better job with their performances, but to our disappointment, they failed to do it.

Let's look at how the middle order performed for the both the teams.

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