Good morning and welcome live coverage of day two of the first India vs England Test of this five-match, Anthony de Mello Trophy, series. A very good day for the hosts and a mixed one for the touring side has put India in the ascendancy but as the relentlessly upbeat Ben Duckett said last night, they would have a bite to eat, play some cards and attack the match afresh in the morning. It’s the England team’s equivalent of a Scottish footballe’rs ‘we pick wersels up and we go again’ and makes a change from the ‘Duncan days’ or ‘Farby front-ups’ after gruelling sessions when Messrs Fletcher and Farbrace used to come out and offer their apologies.
For all that India have nine wickets in hand and trail by merely 127 runs, it is true, as both Michael Atherton and PCR Tufnell said yesterday, that a couple of quick wickets changes everything. And they are quite right. Except that it’s not immediately apparent who would take them given the performances during the evening session. Mark Wood is in the side to blow away the tail and was sent out for a graze in the long pasture after only two overs, Jack Leach looked like an orthodox spinner who may well roll a side in the fourth innings but is not Graeme Swann in the first or second, and Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed look like precisely like what they are: extremely raw.
Joe Root, then? Possibly. He does give it a rip, should trouble the left-handed Yashavi Jaiswal, and bowled well on the last tour. It was strange that he didn’t get a few overs last night after Jaiswal gave Hartley some fearful tap, and also that Wood wasn;t given a second gallop. Perhaps doing so would have sowed too many early doubts about the selection which at this stage looks gravely mistaken. Only wickets will change that perception … time for someone to stand up.