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Cricket PlayersCenturions Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill headline India's day of dominance in Dharamsala
The gulf between the hosts and England in home conditions was glaringly evident on day two of this fifth and final Test.
This was just the sort of chastening day that England’s players, for all their ostensible optimism, may have dreaded when they embarked on this five-Test marathon in India via Abu Dhabi. That Ben Stokes’s men won the opening Test and went toe-to-toe with India for most of this series is a credit to their resolve, but the gulf between these two teams in these conditions was glaringly evident on day two of this fifth and final Test.
Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill racked up wonderful centuries to headline a day of complete dominance, taking the hosts to 473/8 at stumps for an overall lead of 255 runs. Youngsters Devdutt Padikkal, on debut, and Sarfaraz Khan, in his third Test, also hit brisk fifties. England’s players have pulled off some special feats over the past couple of years under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, but the match situation is so stacked in India’s favour that they would do well to avoid an innings defeat here.
With India already in a strong position at 135/1 at the start of the second day, Gill and Rohit were quick to stamp their authority. Two quiet overs were enough for Rohit to decide to go after Shoaib Bashir, picking out the long-on boundary for a six before hitting a four through mid-off.
As their partnership grew, Gill emerged as the more dominant partner. Unlike the opening day when Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj got the ball to deviate in the air in the morning session, there was no movement for Anderson on a day when not a dark cloud was in sight. And so, Gill charged at the veteran bowler, still two shy of 700 Test wickets at this stage, and presented a straight bat for a six down the ground -- possibly the shot of the day.
An expansive cover drive by Gill to the left of mid-off against Mark Wood was perhaps a close second. There were plenty of these exquisite shots through a wicketless first session, something you expect from two batters who are aesthetically ever so pleasing to the eye.
So untroubled was the Indian pair that Stokes quickly resorted to the short-ball tactic and a strong leg-side field for Wood. Neither did it yield a wicket nor did it curtail the run-flow as Gill and Rohit found ways to keep targeting the boundary. On one notable occasion, Rohit made room and slapped a short ball by the fast bowler through vacant mid-off for four.
The spinners were equally ineffective against Gill and Rohit. Gill had been pinned leg-before wicket by Bashir in the first innings in Ranchi, but since then, he has decided to be nimbler with his footwork and smother the spin as much as possible. While the slightly tense run chase in Ranchi meant Gill was largely content stepping out and defending, he had the freedom to unleash big hits here. He did that effortlessly against Bashir more than once, knowing there was little risk in hitting with the turn.
One such shot – straight as an arrow and over the sightscreen – took India into the lead. Thereafter, the remainder of the morning session became a contest between Rohit and Gill about who gets to the three-figure mark first. Rohit got there with a single off Tom Hartley to midwicket. Just two balls later, Gill joined his skipper with a sweep against Bashir towards square leg for four.
The fare at the lunch break would have been much easier to digest for India’s players, firmly in the driving seat at 264/1. There was fleeting respite for England immediately after lunch, and it came from an unexpected source. Stokes, having not bowled for eight months owing to an injury in his left knee, decided to bring himself on and rattle Rohit’s off stump off his first ball in this series – a peach no less that pitched on middle stump and jagged away. Anderson pegged back Gill’s off stump in the next over for his 699th wicket, the centurion perhaps a tad lazy in bringing his bat down to a ball that hadn’t moved all that much.
But that was just an interlude offering hope to the sizeable number of English spectators that their team could be back in the game. Padikkal and Sarfaraz regained the initiative quickly enough, stitching together a 97-run partnership to rub more salt into England’s wounds.
As is customary for most left-handed batters, Padikkal showed impressive fluency on the off-side, driving and punching England’s pacers elegantly for a streak of boundaries. Sarfaraz was slow off the blocks – he took 30 balls to reach 9 -- but switched gears rapidly to race past the debutant. The 26-year-old toyed with Wood for three fours and a six in successive overs -- a thumping off-drive, a ramp towards third man, a flick past midwicket and a power-packed pull all part of the mix. He would move to 51 off just 55 balls when a sublime sweep at Bashir’s expense sped to the square leg boundary.
Similar to the second session, England were quick to strike after tea. Off the first ball after resumption, Sarfaraz offered a straightforward catch to Joe Root at slip for Bashir’s second wicket. With India’s lead already in excess of 150 though, Padikkal had the license to bring up his maiden half-century in some style with a six over long-on.
Some solace came Bashir’s way when Padikkal got caught on the crease to be bowled for 65. With the ball misbehaving a bit even for England’s spinners by this stage, three wickets fell in quick succession thereafter. But by adding 45 runs for the ninth wicket and stretching that lead even further, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah ensured India ended the day just like they began: in complete command.
