A soft dismissal cost Yahasvi Jaiswal a well-deserved hundred as India ambled to 182 for three at tea day one of the second Test against England here on Wednesday (July 2, 2025).
Captain Shubman Gill (42 batting off 109) looked comfortable in the middle alongside his deputy Rishabh Pant (14 batting off 28) on another good batting surface in the five-match series.
IEngland skipper Ben Stokes, who has a knack of picking up wickets out of nowhere, had Jaiswal (87 off 107) caught behind off a short and wide delivery. Jaiswal perhaps went too hard at the ball only to offer a simple catch to Jamie Smith behind stumps.
With not much happening in the session, the English fans in the iconic Eric Hollies Stand sporadically made plenty of noise to push the home team. India added 84 runs in 28 wickets in the session for the loss of Jaiswal.
In the 34th over, Gill survived a DRS lbw call off a Brydon Carse nip backer due to an inside edge.
Captains Ben Stokes and Shubman Gill at the toss during day one of the 2nd Rothesay Test Match between England and India at Edgbaston on July 2, 2025 in Birmingham, England.
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Against the sole spinner Shoaib Bashir, Gill stepped out from time to time and on one occasion dispatched him over extra cover.
Pant joined him late in the session and took his time to settle down before using his feet against Bashir for a six over mid-on.
Earlier, Jaiswal maintained his aggression despite being tested by the England pacers while Karun Nair (31 off 50) showed promise at number three before being dismissed late in the morning session.
Considering the overhead conditions, Stokes opted to bowl but Jaiswal and Nair did well to survive the tough period. In the first hour, KL Rahul (2 off 26), played on to the stumps off a Chris Woakes delivery before Jaiswal-Nair duo added 80 for the second wicket.
Carse got one to rise sharply minutes before lunch, inducing an outside edge off Nairâs bat that went to Harry Brook at second slip.
There was not a lot of swing on offer but the ball did seam a fair bit during the first hour of play. Carse targeted Jaiswalâs rib cage often but the southpaw was unscathed.
Jaiswal began with a couple of cover drives off Carse, who purposely bowled full to the batter and mixed it up an odd short ball into the body. Besides the flowing drives, the southpaw also played the pull and a slap over backward point off Ben Stokes.
Nair, moved up three places in the batting order from the last game, was offered plenty of full balls from the England pacers and he duly obliged by driving it through the cover and straight boundary.
Before toss, the boundary ropes being brought in significantly caught the eye of many at Edgbaston.
With premier match winner Jasprit Bumrah rested from the game, India brought in Akash Deep in his place while making two interesting changes, leaving out Sai Sudharsan for Washington Sundar and replacing Shardul Thakur with Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Kuldeep Yadav was once again ignored as India picked a second spinner in batting all-rounder Washington. For a team that struggled to take 20 wickets at Leeds, the decision to shore up the batting was debatable.
Squads:
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, K.L. Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (capt), Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Published – July 02, 2025 03:15 pm IST