‘Inhone khela hai asli Bazball’ – Fans react as India end Day 1 at 119/1 after restricting England to 246

Ever since Brendon McCullum has become the head coach of England, their playing approach has changed. This change of approach is often known as ‘Bazball’ cricket. England has won a few series with their Bazball cricket. However, this fearless approach has become a matter of concern for England as they have failed massively in some series. Talking about the current series against India, the Stokes-led England side won the toss and decided to bat first. The match started on a good note for England as they were 55 for no loss at the start of the 11th over.

However, they lost their momentum once Ben Duckett lost his wicket to Ravichandran Ashwin. Soon after that, England lost two consecutive wickets to Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley. After the top order collapsed, the middle order rescued the team for a brief period. Joe Root (29) and Jonny Bairstow (37) came in and played a subtle innings which set the base for Ben Stokes to come in and settle for a while. Stokes played a captain’s knock of 70 runs off 88 balls which got England up to 246.

As suspected, the spin-friendly track did help the Indian spin bowlers throughout the game. Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin took three wickets each starting from the top order. Once Axar Patel joined them, they did not allow the visitors to settle easily. The spinners combined have taken eight wickets while Jashprit Bumrah got two wickets, out of which one was of Ben Stokes.

India’s Comfortable Day 1

India ended their day 1 comfortably at 119-1. Captain Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal gave India a good start. Jaiswal’s fearless batting came as a shocker for England as he started his innings with a boundary. He ended the day with a massive score of 76 runs off 70 balls. Seemed like Jaiswal was playing the real Bazball cricket. At the end of day 1, Jaiswal and Shubman Gill were batting.

England did a great job at keeping more spin than pace options in the team. However, the spinners couldn’t give them the desired results on the first day. As the match will proceed, the pitch will start to turn more. It will be intriguing to see how the English spinners bowl from day 2.

What a day for India . Impressive in all sessions

— Salman Mirza (@SalmanMrza) January 25, 2024

https://twitter.com/manoj_begu/status/1750477789248286945

Going great team! Keep it up

— Harshvardhan Khade (@HhvardhanK) January 25, 2024

https://twitter.com/bhaskar_sanu08/status/1750477724152733904

Well done India!
But still a long way to go. On turning tracks, collapses can happen. So let us be on our guard and continue with the momentum!

— Rishi Gupta (@rishigupta529) January 25, 2024

https://twitter.com/Adnan_Sardar07/status/1750478231457685511

https://twitter.com/THINKValleyy/status/1750477747716293000

love to see him ❤️

— Waheed Malik (@waheed__malik) January 25, 2024

pic.twitter.com/GdqmlJsXLM

— Sankott (@Iamsankot) January 25, 2024