India raced out of their blocks at the start of their first innings on day one at Hyderabad and continued their dominance in the opening session of the second day, albeit in not quite as emphatic a manner.
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India resumed day two on 119-1 with Yashasvi Jaiswal 24 runs away from registering a Test hundred on his home debut. The young India opener started day two how he finished day one, running down the pitch to hit Joe Root for four off the second delivery of the day. The decision to hand Root – who didn’t bowl at all on day one – the ball was rewarded, though.
England captain Ben Stokes tinkered with the field, moving the fielder at silly mid-off slightly straighter. Jaiswal, perhaps trying to avoid the moved fielder, looked to hit Root down the ground once more but this time spooned the ball straight into the hands of the former England captain handing the visitors with a wicket in the second over of the day.
Root’s opening spell carried with it significant threat. Root had KL Rahul dropped by Ben Foakes behind the stumps second ball, a chance that wasn’t quite regulation but one that Foakes will have expected to take. Two overs later, Root should have had Shubman Gill, too. Gill, who was struggling to rotate the strike, looked to hit Root aerially down the ground but did not get to the pitch of the ball and instead skied the ball towards the long-on area. Stokes, stationed at a deep mid-on, totally lost sight of the ball and in doing so, handed Gill a life.
Root was only a handed one additional over before being taken out of the attack. Gill fell later in the morning to Tom Hartley, chipping an innocuous full delivery to mid-wicket to hand the England left-arm spinner his first Test wicket.
But Root’s relative lack of bowling was one of the main talking points of the session. By the end of the session, he had bowled just six out of the first 50 overs of the India innings despite arguably providing more threat than any of the other England spinners.
On commentary, former India player and coach Ravi Shastri said that Root was comfortably the standout England spinner on the second morning. “Root very good, the others have been ordinary,” proclaimed Shastri. “It’s been easy pickings for India at the other end. You give easy runs and you allow the opposition off the hook and it becomes difficult for you. Root looked the most consistent of the England spinners. Runs have been easily at the other end.”
