Last Updated on 5 years ago by Charbel Coorey
3 major talking points from 1st England vs India Test | Main talking points from the 1st Test between England and India at Trent Bridge
Rain Gods had the final say on what promised to be a fascinating last day of Test cricket at Trent Bridge as England and India settled for a draw in the opening game of the five-match series.
The final day’s play of the Nottingham Test was perfectly poised with the visitors needing 157 runs and the home side 9 wickets to win and go 1-up in the series. However, rain played spoilsport and didn’t allow a single over to be bowled on the final day of the first Test. In this article, we’ll look at the three key talking points from the first Test in Nottingham.
England’s top order struggle continues
While the Indian openers earned praise from the cricketing world for their resistance at the top in alien conditions, England’s top order was left exposed once again this year with Rory Burns, Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley failung to breach the 30-run mark in both innings of the Nottingham Test. The three aggregated 97 across two innings in the first Test, with the average per batsman per outing coming to just over 16.
Burns may get a reprieve after top-scoring for his team in the last series against New Zealand. But things aren’t looking good for Crawley and Sibley as Crawley has averaged just over 11 in 2021, while Sibley has not fared much better with an average of 21.56 in his last nine appearances. A warning has been issued to the top 3 of England by the head coach and chief selector of England- Chris Silverwood as he’s ready to bring in changes at the top for England.
Nottinghamshire’s Haseeb Hameed is waiting in the wings for a return in Test XI, almost five years since a broken finger cut short an eye-catching start to his England career in India. He already made his case strong after scoring a hundred against India XI in the practice game at Durham.
KL Rahul: Still worthy at the top
KL Rahul returned to India’s Test team for the first time since August 2019 and couldn’t have asked for a better comeback in the Test team. His career was at the crossroads till last week and then just two days before the first Test, opener Mayank Agarwal’s head injury opened the gate once again for the Karnataka batsman to prove his worth in whites.
Against a quality English attack on a pitch conducive to pace and swing, Rahul showed fine resistance to score 84 off 214 balls in the first innings. In the second innings, he was looking good once again before being dismissed on 26. He played in the UK in 2018 as well but the difference is he’s now looking to leave the balls bowled in the off-stump channel. KL seems to have worked out a method of getting runs in England without going out fishing outside off stump which he did in the last tour to England. Rahul was the standout batsman from the Indian camp and as this was his comeback game in the whites, one can say that he’s still worthy at the top.
The battle is still alive
Virat Kohli’s old nemesis and England’s all-time highest wicket-taker James Anderson reignited the battle between the two living legends of the game after he dismissed the Indian skipper for a golden duck in the first innings of the first Test. Kohli came out after the fall of Cheteshwar Pujara, who was also dismissed by the same bowler thanks to a peach of a ball. Anderson once again tested Kohli’s in the corridor of uncertainty and India’s number 4 poked at it giving Anderson his second wicket of the same over. This was the first time that Anderson dismissed Kohli since 2014. When India toured England in 2014, Anderson was all over Kohli, dismissing him on four occasions in the five-match Test series.
After Kohli’s horror tour in 2014, both have faced each other in three series and Kohli certainly improved his numbers against the King of Swing. Anderson created enough chances, but was unlucky not to get the prize scalp of Kohli on a number of occasions in the last three series with his teammates dropping Kohli off his bowling. The 39-year-old is now 1-up in the battle of the heavyweights and it’ll be interesting to see how Kohli responds to Anderson’s challenge moving forward in the series.
Written by Vaibhav Tripathi. Follow Vaibhav on Twitter today.
