England were helped by Mohammad Shami to finish their horrendous batting performance in the second over of the day itself. After being totally in command at 216 for the loss of three wickets they collapsed miserably to a score of 287 runs in good batting conditions. India begun well as the opening stand between Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan established a strong platform but something similar happened with the visitors as well.
The bowling all rounder, Sam Curran was given the ball by Joe Root and he took three Indian wickets in quick succession as India were reduced to 59 for three from a good looking score of 50 for no loss. This happened only in the space of three overs. The run machine Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane ensured that India had no more hiccups going into the lunch break.
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It has been only four sessions in this much awaited five match Test series and there has been so much happening around. Kohli’s mic-drop celebrations, England’s unusual collapse and now a young medium pacer who is playing his second Test match managing to give headaches to the strong Indian batting line up.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad had decent spells to begin with but the Indian opening stand looked fluent and scored runs without any pressure. Though the youngster helped England derail the opposition, the major focus will be on James Anderson who would be expected to get rid of the run machine as he did on majority of occasions in 2014 Test series.
Brief scores: England 287 all out (Joe Root 80, R Ashwin 26-7-62-4), India 76/3 in 21 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 26, Sam Curran 6-0-23-3)