Visakhapatnam: England’s debutant spinner Shoaib Bashir got the prized wicket of India captain Rohit Sharma but Yashasvi Jaiswal’s second successive half-century steered the cautious hosts to 103 for two at lunch on day one of the second Test here Friday.
Jaiswal (51 batting off 92) had the company of Shreyas Iyer (4 batting) at the break after the fall of Rohit (14 off 41) and Shubman Gill (34 off 46), who looked good before James Anderson had him caught behind with a beauty.
India expectedly decided to bat first on a flat surface and made three changes to their playing eleven, bringing in debutant Rajat Patidar, Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar for K L Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Siraj respectively.
Found guilty of throwing away their wickets in Hyderabad, the opening combine of Rohit and Jaiswal batted in a sedate fashion especially in the first hour of play, collecting only 40 runs in 16 overs.
England opened the bowling with lone pacer in the playing eleven, Anderson, and off-spinner Joe Root. Anderson was accurate and frugal in his opening spell, giving away only six runs in five overs.
The surface had minimal help for him but the 41-year-old still made life tough for Rohit by targeting his stumps. It was very unlike Rohit to not to go for his shots and his innings ended without a boundary.
The India captain eventually fell in the 18th over when off-spinner Bashir got one to turn sharply and Rohit flicked it straight to Ollie Pope at leg-slip. Jaiswal, on the other hand, showed much more positive intent.
While being watchful, Jaiswal was quick to punish the loose balls in the first hour of play before stepping on the accelerator.
He used the sweep shot sparingly and got majority of his boundaries with the cut shot.
Jaiswal whipped a full toss from Bashir for the first six of his innings before reaching his half-century with a four through point.
Gill was outsmarted by Anderson in his second spell as the veteran pacer got one to straighten slightly from the off-stump to get the outside edge from the batter.
