In the aftermath of England’s victory in Hyderabad, Kevin Pietersen tweeted that kids have “zero interest” in Test cricket. He may have been surprised, therefore, by the opening day of the second instalment on India’s verdant east coast, where three whippersnappers – the oldest just 22 years young – stole the show.
First there was Shoaib Bashir. After being presented with his cap by the injured Jack Leach before the match, the 20-year-old put all the unnecessary visa strife behind him when his 21st ball at international level winkled out Rohit Sharma. Later, Bashir bookended proceedings by persuading Axar Patel to slash to backward point – this was the debut the off-spinner would have dreamed about growing up and while racking up all those air miles last week.
On the Indian side of the ledger, over the course of three sessions on a dry, flat surface in Visakhapatnam, it was Yashasvi Jaiswal who truly dazzled. The 22‑year‑old left-hander is some player; a product of remarkable ambition given, aged 10, he moved 1,000 miles from his home in Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai in order to pursue his dream of playing cricket. There he spent four years living in the groundsman’s tent on the Azad Maidan, honing the craft with which he unfurled 17 fours and five mighty sixes here in an unbeaten 179 from 257 balls.
But despite his elegant, controlled aggression, India had stumbled to 336 for six by stumps which, given the limited resources at his disposal and the coin going against him, was a healthy return for Ben Stokes. Along with Bashir, it was a third greenhorn who helped swing the pendulum back. Rehan Ahmed, 19, bowled the debutant Rajat Patidar in agonising fashion after tea – a forward defensive that ended with the ball trickling back on to the stumps – and snuffed out the local favourite Srikar Bharat just moments before the end.
Not that the kids had it all their own way. Stokes says he does not care about the scoreboard but, on a day when India rattled along at 3.6 runs per over, the England captain was surely grateful for the return of Jimmy Anderson. He began his 22nd year as a Test cricketer, at the ripe old age of 41, by shipping only 30 runs across 17 overs. This control was also allied with the wicket of Shubman Gill before lunch when, on 34, the No 3 pushed at a fifth stump line and Ben Foakes began a pretty silken outing with the gloves by taking the catch.
It was a second breakthrough of the morning, Bashir having entered the fray in the 12th over and switched from viral video to Test cap No 713 in an instant. Across five spells he betrayed few nerves, a tall action that takes a skip to the right was smooth throughout and his lengths as consistent as a newcomer could hope for. The wicket of Sharma was a lovely moment, too, a subdued start by India’s captain ending as he fiddled a ball that had gripped into the adhesive hands of Ollie Pope at leg slip.
From 103 for two at lunch, India dominated the afternoon, Jaiswal turning his second half-century of the series into three figures by 1.20pm local time – a second century in just six Tests after making 171 on debut in the Caribbean last year. It came amid a cat-and-mouse battle with his old friend Tom Hartley – one that featured a sharp chance evading Joe Root’s fingertips at slip on 73 – and was sealed by a booming six off the left-armer.
As a lively crowd of roughly 10,000 in this breezy ground erupted, Jaiswal dropped his bat, removed his helmet and flapped his outstretched arms towards the India dressing room. Amid a drop-off in experience caused by injuries and absentees – Root’s 11,447 Test runs eclipsing the entire India XI – Jaiswal had taken flight for his team and was positively soaring, his array of rasping cuts and drives making it 225 for three by tea.
The one man to fall in the session was Shreyas Iyer, under-edging Hartley on 27 to produce a sharp, low catch from Foakes who, at 6ft 2in, works diligently in training to stay low on these surfaces. But, if honours were possibly even in the morning and India handsomely won the afternoon, England unquestionably finished the stronger. The hosts did add a further 111 runs on to their stash but, Jaiswal’s masterclass aside, three further dismissals continued the lack of ruthlessness India demonstrated in the first Test.
There were times during the day when Stokes possibly wished for a second seamer. Not least when Jaiswal responded to the half-chance past Root by drilling Hartley for successive fours and Patidar, a latecomer aged 30, hinted at the form that brought back‑to-back centuries against England Lions with some handsome square drives.
But such thoughts melted away when Bashir and Ahmed combined late on, trading catches at backward point and high fives in the celebrations, leaving India with work to do in the process. These kids seem interested, all right.
