Manchester: Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja stay unbeaten for India at the end of Day 1 in the fourth of the five-match Test series at Manchester as India close the day at 264/4.
On fourth ball of the 68th over that was bowled by Chris Woakes, Rishabh Pant attempted a reverse-sweep. He just nicked the ball before the fast delivery hit his right foot, leaving him badly injured. The area that copped the blow soon got swollen and it also started bleeding. Pant was grimacing in pain and he could not even stand on his foot. An ambulance had to be brought inside the playing area to take the player out. He was retired hurt while Ravindra Jadeja replaced him in the middle.
Apart from the Pant injury, India had a good outing on the opening day of the fourth Test against England at Old Trafford, Manchester. They reached 264 for 4 at Stumps. Yashasvi Jaiswal (58) and KL Rahul (46) stitched a 94-run stand for the opening wicket after India got an invitation to bat first. Meanwhile, Sai Sudharsan too contributed with a fine-tuned knock of 61. Ravindra Jadeja and Shardul Thakur were at the crease on the score of 19 each when the umpires called for early Stumps due to poor light. For England, Ben Stokes was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2 for 47.
Earlier, Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bowl first on a fairly flat wicket. Although Chris Woakes did bowl a lovely spell and picked up the wicket it was skipper himslef like at Lord’s who changed the course of the game through the day by picking two crucial wickets. First, it was skipper Shubman Gill, and then it was Sai Sudharsan late in the day.
India has made three changes in the side with Sai Sudharsan, Shardul Thakur, and Anshul Kamboj, who have come in for Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Akash Deep. As per England, they had to replace injured Shoaib Bashir with Liam Dawson. — Agencies
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
