|| India Correspondent ||

India were put to bowl by Joe Root after the English captain won the toss. However, Jasprit Bumrah’s early onslaught ensured that the visitors kept Root’s men in check as he struck twice in first 13 overs to take India to a formidable start in the innings.

The Indian pacers capitalized on the seaming conditions and dismantled the English top-order with some early blows. Hardik Pandya continued his fine form from Nottingham, as he got Alaistar Cook caught at slips through Virat Kohli.

It was a commendable, collective bowling effort as Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami claimed the crucial wickets of Joe Root, along with Ben Stokes and Jos Butler respectively. However, India’s inability to sweep off the lower-middle order was showcased yet again as Sam Curran and Moeen Ali stuck a valuable partnership with Curran eventually scoring 77 runs in the end.

In the hindsight, the Indian team should have done better once they dismissed six English batsmen for a total of 86 runs only. However, the hosts, who were guarded by Curran’s yet another valuable knock managed to notch 255 runs before the Indian batsmen played four overs at the end of the day.

The Indian batsmen negated the threat quite well and scored 19 runs from four overs. Trailing by 236 runs currently, Kohli’s men need to ensure that they steadily gain the momentum and further tighten their grip over the proceedings of the game.