Ben Stokes and James Anderson both drew praise from the commentators during the second Test match in Vizag for their combined effort in planning the perfect set-up for Shubman Gill‘s dismissal at the end of the morning session on Day One.

Gill nicked Anderson behind ten minutes before Lunch, becoming the second wicket to fall for India in the session and continuing his run of low scores. The No.3 made 34 before he was dismissed today (February 2), extending his run of scores below 50 to ten innings.  Anderson bowled a miserly opening spell before he was brought back on to Gill. He conceded just six runs from his first five overs, and was less than two overs into his second spell when he found Gill’s outside edge.

After the Lunch interval, Dinesh Karthik and Ravi Shastri analysed how both Stokes and Anderson crafted the dismissal. The ball before the wicket, Stokes had moved a fielder back onto the boundary at deep square leg, seemingly signalling his intent for short pitched bowling.

“Very interesting bit of captaincy from Ben Stokes,” said Karthik. “He saw Shubman Gill stepping out, walking out edging a few off the front foot, and he asked square leg to go back deep… He has a word with James Anderson and the next ball is around the fourth or fifth stump, the usual three-card trick which a fast bowler plays.

“Gill went hard at it with his hands, probably looking for the short ball, at least the seed of doubt planted by Ben Stokes there. A real good bit of captaincy.”

Gill had picked up a boundary through the slips off his outside edge to Anderson off the first ball of the over, with the last ball of his previous over to Gill also a boundary off his outside edge. The three next balls Anderson bowled to Gill all drew him onto the front foot, defending for dots.

“You can see the previous ten balls Gill had faced, almost all played on the front foot,” said Karthik. “[He was] making a very conscious effort to play off the front foot. As a captain you’re observing that, trying to think how can you get that dismissal? Pushing deep square leg back and then this one the next ball. The small things plays on the mind of the batter, but worth it’s weight in gold and the dismissal comes the next ball.”

“That’s a real master-craftsman at work,” said Shastri on Anderson. “He attacks the stumps, attacks the stumps, attacks the stumps and hardly any deliveries are wide, just one that goes through the slip cordon. Otherwise he’s all those blue markers and the wicket he gets by luring them wide.

“See how tight he is the that off stump, and then the sucker ball. That’s really really good bowling. It’s like a spinner’s length, he draws you into it, lures you into the shot because he’s not giving you anything, as a batsman you want to feel the ball. You want to score runs, you want that single on the off side if you can get it.”

Anderson completed the session having bowled eight overs with figures of 1-19. With Mark Wood having been prefered to him in England’s XI for the first Test, Gill was his first Test wicket since July last year, when he took one wicket in the final Ashes Test at The Oval.

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