TALKING POINTS 
Follow UsDay 1 of the Dharamsala Test was a reminder of how the series has gone by. After winning a good toss, England placed themselves in a good position. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett again got the team off to a good start with a 64-run stand. But the middle-order didn’t cash in. England slid from 175/3 to 175/6. Three wickets for no run soon became five wickets for 10 runs and eventually, the Three Lions were pinned down for only 218.
In response, the India openers came out all guns blazing. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma forged a 104-run stand, razing off half of the deficit in no time. At stumps, India were 135/1 and only 83 runs behind England on a decent wicket to bat on. After Jaiswal was stumped for 57, Rohit and Shubman Gill were unbeaten on 52 and 26 respectively.
Here are the main events that shaped out the day as it went:
Spin wreaks havoc
When the play started, all the talks were about how the conditions make Dharamsala a home away from home for England. It was cold throughout the day as the England batters were wearing jumpers and the Indian management, including the head coach Rahul Dravid, were seen with a beanie cap. Moreover, in the previous first-class game played at the venue, 36 wickets fell and none of it were accounted against a spinner’s name.
Hence, it felt like a good opportunity for England to put India under pressure. The openers saw off seven-over spells from Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah. However, as soon as the spinners came on, the England batters were at sea again.
Each of Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja gained significant drift. Kuldeep even spun the ball miles from outside the off stump to hit Crawley’s leg stick. England lost all their 10 wickets to spin. While Jasprit Bumrah has created the difference for India, in this Test, it has been the Indian spinners running the show.
Yet another collapse
114/1 to 182/7 in Visakhapatnam
224/2 to 319 all out in Rajkot
145 all out in Ranchi
173/3 to 218 all out in Dharamsala
England have collapsed in every single match since their win in Hyderabad. Their middle-order (number four to seven) averages 23.3 in this series now as compared to India’s 32.7.
Ollie Pope, since his 196 in Hyderabad, has managed only 99 runs in seven innings. Joe Root got out to Ravindra Jadeja for the eighth time, the joint-most number of times a bowler has dismissed him in the longer format. Jonny Bairstow, like the preceding Tests of the series, again got out after showing promise. Some of his top scores in the series read 37, 26, 25, 30, 38 and 29 today. And Ben Stokes, yet again, was out playing spin on the back foot again.
England simply repeated the old mistakes that had already taken the series away from them. And now, a 1-4 scoreline is staring them in the eyes.
Kuldeep puts his hand up, again
Bumrah in the pace department and Kuldeep among the spinners have been the strike bowlers for India in this series. Bumrah averages 16.6 runs per wicket and Kuldeep 20.2. These are the top two bowling averages on either side.
On Day 1, Kuldeep not only broke the opening stand but picked five of the first six wickets to fall in the England innings. He spun the ball from his first over itself, fetching Duckett with a leg break from the fuller side of the good length. That was the length that got him Bairstow and Crawley as well.
Kuldeep was also clever with his pulling his length back, trapping Stokes with the length on the shorter side of the good length. Pope was the only batter out in the short pitch region given he charged down the track to the wrist spinner.
Playing this series since the second Test, Kuldeep has played four Tests this year, already the most for him in a calendar year. England batters haven’t picked him from his hands, which has troubled them. But one cannot count out that having outbowled Ashwin and Jadeja in the series, the 29-year-old has put his hand up to be their successor.
Jaiswal the juggernaut
While India waited 14 overs to bowl their first over of spin, Stokes summoned Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir after the seventh over itself. The performance of Indian spinners must have influenced Stokes’ call.
Rohit and Jaiswal had a sedate start, scoring 25 in the first seven over of pace. As soon as the spinners came in, the two turned the heat on England. Hartley and Bashir bowled the remaining 23 overs and conceded 110 runs. Bashir, England’s strike bowler in Ranchi, was hit for 64 runs in his 11 overs.
Jaiswal, instead of taking on his positive match-up in Hartley, went all guns blazing against Bashir who was a negative match-up for him. The left-hander smashed the off-break bowler for 46 runs from 25 deliveries.
In this series, Jaiswal has belted Bashir for 185 runs and Hartley for 152 runs. That is 337 runs between the two spinners. Jaiswal was eventually out to Bashir, trying to smash another maximum. However, he had done his job by then. Scoring 57 off 58 balls, Jaiswal played a big role in putting India in the driver’s seat at stumps on Day 1.
