3 takeaways from Day 1 of Birmingham Test between India and England

Rishabh Pant (146 off 111) and Ravindra Jadeja (83* off 163) added 222 runs for the sixth wicket as India posted a competitive 338 for 7 on Day 1 of the Birmingham Test (rescheduled) against England.

Sent into bat after losing yet another toss, India crumbled to 98 for 5 as James Anderson (3/52) and Matthew Potts (2/85) rattled the visitors. Anderson sent back both openers cheaply to give England the early advantage. Shubman Gill was the first to go, caught at slip for 17, while Cheteshwar Pujara (13) was also forced to nick a probing delivery outside off from the England legend.

At the other end, Potts trapped Hanuma Vihari (20) leg-before with a length delivery that seamed in sharply. The England pacer also dislodged Virat Kohli (11) as the tentative batter dragged a ball outside off back onto the stumps.

The visitors had lost half their side when Shreyas Iyer (15) was strangled down leg by a rising delivery from Anderson. Pant and Jadeja then led a stunning recovery for India.

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India vs England 5th Test: 3 things to ponder upon

With an entertaining Day 1 coming to an end in Birmingham, let’s analyze three big talking points.

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#1 Pant becoming India’s “Mr. Reliable” in overseas conditions

Rishabh Pant scored a spectacular hundred. Pic: Getty Images

Pant’s white-ball cricket may not be up to the standards yet. But when it comes to Test cricket, he is soon becoming India’s “Mr. Reliable” with the bat, especially in away conditions.

On Day 1 of the Birmingham Test, he gave another illustration of his growing maturity as a Test batter. Coming in with India in all sorts of trouble, the left-hander played a fabulous hand to lift India into a competitive position.

Given that he has a tendency to play rash strokes at times, reliability is not something that sits easily with Pant’s batting. However, the youngster has given enough indications to prove that there is a method to his madness. On Friday as well, he took calculated risks. He targeted left-arm spinner Jack Leach, knowing very well that there was not much assistance for the slow bowler.

When Pant went hammer and tongs against Australia in Sydney during the New Year Test last year, many critics felt it was a fluke. However, the southpaw followed it up with an epic match-winning knock at The Gabba.

A hundred in Ahmedabad against England on a challenging surface for batters and another in Cape Town - 100* in a total of 198 - added credence to the growing legend of Pant. The Birmingham knock is another glorious chapter in Pant’s ever-rising stature as a Test cricketer.

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#2 Virat Kohli is feeling the pressure

Virat Kohli is bowled by Matthew Potts. Pic: Getty Images

Ahead of the Test match, Team India’s head coach Rahul Dravid backed the under-fire Kohli, stating he batted well in the practice game in Leicester and was ticking the right boxes when it came to preparation. However, the manner of the former India captain’s dismissal on Day 1 of the Birmingham Test clearly indicated that he’s feeling the pressure of failures.

The 33-year-old was completely unsure of how to deal with a delivery dangled outside off stump by England pacer Potts. In the end, he used his bat to direct the ball onto the stumps. It could be termed an unlucky dismissal, but Kohli’s indecisiveness played a big part in him losing his wicket.

What should worry India and Kohli is the fact that this was not the first time that the star batter has been dismissed in ungainly fashion recently. In the IPL, he registered three golden ducks and the strokes he played clearly pointed to someone who was mentally not quite there.

Kohli and Team India might keep claiming that they are not bothered by all the outside noise. But the theory seems a mirage as Kohli seems to have been clearly affected by the constant chatter around his woeful form.

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#3 Shreyas Iyer “short” on confidence

Shreyas Iyer again fell to the short ball. Pic: Getty Images

Shreyas Iyer made a brilliant Test debut against New Zealand last year in Kanpur, hammering a hundred and a fifty. He then scored 92 and 67 in the Bengaluru Test against Sri Lanka earlier this year. He has looked completely in control in home conditions, having found it rather easy to deal with the pacers. However, in his first Test away from home, his vulnerability against the short ball was exposed.

Anderson fired in a quick delivery that was angling into Iyer’s body and all the right-handed batter could do was fend it down leg for England keeper Sam Billings to take a brilliant one-handed catch. Iyer was caught off guard by the rising delivery and had no answer to England’s rather obvious plan.

Iyer has been playing international cricket for a few seasons now and word has spread rapidly around the globe that he cannot play the rising delivery. Even in a T20 tournament like the IPL, the short ball proved to be his undoing more than once. He was often hurried into his stroke and lost his wicket in the process.

Without doubt, Iyer is a highly talented batter. But he needs to find a fix to his short-ball woes to have a successful career, especially in red-ball cricket. It is rather surprising that despite knowing what to expect from the opposition bowlers, Iyer has failed to come up with a counter so far.