1st Test: Rahul, Sai Sudharsan fall on stroke of lunch as India reach 92/2

For an hour and 54 minutes, India were running away with this session, all thanks to Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal sticking to the basics of batting well in England – being patient, leaving the balls well, and cashing on real loose deliveries, resulting in some superbly-middled drives, to share a brilliant 91-run opening stand.

But with Rahul and debutant Sudharsan falling softly for 42 and zero respectively, India squandered their well-earned advantage, allowing England to go into the lunch break with some happiness despite the hosts being made to toil hard for 90% of the time in the session. Though Jaiswal is unbeaten on 42 not out, he and new skipper Shubman Gill have a good resurrecting job to do.

Pushed into batting first, Jaiswal got India’s first boundary of the series by prodding forward and defending with soft hands to take a boundary through gully off Chris Woakes. He grew in confidence with every drive, either going through mid-off or in the arc between cover and backward-point.

On the other hand, after getting a boundary off a thick outside edge, Rahul began showing his sublime cover-driving skills – pressing forward and then leaning into the drive off Chris Woakes for four. England’s desperation for a wicket was so huge that they burnt a review when Josh Tongue trapped Jaiswal, who was hit earlier on the ribs by Carse, lbw with an inswinger, but replays showed the ball pitching outside leg-stump.

England not attacking stumps much meant they didn’t have the precision to stop Jaiswal and Rahul from playing the glorious straight and cover drives, though a few attempted drives did fly over the slip cordon. Apart from slashing and driving off Stokes on consecutive balls, Rahul was picture-perfect in his cover drive – front foot towards the pitch of the ball, getting down on one knee, and playing with a high elbow.

But with Carse finding some late movement, Rahul had to stand up to defend against him and then shouldered arms against a full and wide delivery. But against a full and wide outswinger, Rahul couldn’t resist the temptation and went for a drive, but nicked to the first slip, leaving the batter livid.

One brought two for England as Sudharsan faced instant baptism by fire – surviving an lbw appeal first ball, edging his second delivery past the slips, and coming close to flicking down the leg-side on the third ball.

But on the very next ball, the nervy Sudharsan again flicked down the leg-side but was caught by the keeper leaping to his right and departing for a four-ball duck off Stokes, as those two dismissals totally changed the session’s outlook from all things India to shared one.

Brief scores:

India 92/2 in 25.4 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 42 not out, KL Rahul 42; Ben Stokes 1-20, Brydon Carse 1-23) against England