by While all England’s focus ahead of the third Test was on Ben Stokes winning his 100th cap – the biggest collection of hits drumbeating for this crucial game – the bunting also came out on the Indian side of the divide.
The Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium was officially named after Niranjan Shah, a prominent local and national administrator. And at a VVIP function to mark this, Jay Shah announced that Rohit Sharma will lead India at this year’s T20 World Cup, promising to take the trophy to themselves. “Hum Bharat ka jhanda gadenge” (We will take the flag of India high).
Related: India roar back after early wobble against England: third Test, first day – how it happened
This coronation was a bit strange for the outsider, Shah being the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, not the chief selector, and it was widely expected that Sharma would do the job anyway. Maybe it was designed as a public pick for me. After all, the heartache from last year’s World Cup final was among the various speculative diagnoses as to why Sharma was a dormant volcano during the first two Tests.
Either way, that volcano blew its lid on Rajkot’s opening day as Sharma went from idle to dominant. Over the course of five hours, and after a startling start at the other end, India’s Test captain stitched together Test century No. 11 for 131 off 196 balls. Along with an unbeaten 106 from Ravindra Jadeja, and an eye-popping 62 from opener Safaraz Khan, the hosts scored a formidable 326 for five at stumps.
The late surge from Sarfaraz, a tubby right-hander with a bulging first-class average of 69.85, will be celebrated in the Mumbai matches. His father and coach, Naushad, was crying when the cap first came off and must have been in heaven after tea. Emerging at 237 for four when Sharma finally departed, Sarfaraz raided nine fours and a six in a truly spectacular form of bowling.
All this threatened to overwhelm Jadeja, who played an anchor role in a 204-run fourth-wicket stand with Sharma. That was until, one short of his age and his home crowd waiting for the latest sword celebration, Jadeja called – and then thought better of it – a single that saw Sarfaraz run out comfortably.
Mark Wood was the fielder who bowled the stumps here, one final reward on a day of typical pace and heart which ended with three wickets in his personal column. Among these was Sharma, who rushed the pull and popped the ball to mid-wicket. While the Indian captain was angrier at Sarfaraz being cut short in the shadows of the dying session, throwing his cap to the floor and erupting with boos.
Still, Safaraz was crackling based on his own experience and Jadeja was emerging. The last time India played a Test series without Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rahul Dravid or Sachin Tendulkar in their XI was 1989 and 45 minutes into this match, three rookies departed. Pujara, however, is too sweet a character to smile as he fills the back with his addition to Saurashtra ahead of the Ranji Trophy match.
England were certainly helped by the early damping of the tourists in that pitch which troubled Sharma first when he won the toss. This much was evident when the departure of Rajat Patidar left 33 in the ninth over, the right-hander coaxing a ball from Tom Hartley that skimmed the surface and bounced, spilling a soft catch at cover.
But mainly he came down to the Wood bursting from the traps on his return. Jimmy Anderson’s 25th new ball party in Test cricket vaporized both of last week’s centurions, Yashasvi Jaiswal edged to slip when one zipped off the seam, before a nine-ball skittish duck from Shubman Gill with one nipped the another way. When Wood then cloned Sharma’s grill with a wicked bouncer, India looked like they were seeing stars.
However, mastery from India continued, Jadeja promoted to No. 5 – where he had averaged 11 in six previous attempts – and set about pouring concrete into the holes with Sharma. That said, the Indian captain had a few near misses in the twenties. Joe Root failed to flick a sharp low catch to his left as he slipped off the bowling of Hartley – unseen by Sharma trying to whip through mid-wicket – and Anderson looked to have been dismissed lbw by a feathery inside edge.
After that it was a case of England waiting for the error which didn’t come until midway through the afternoon session – not that Stokes likes to wait. But after reaching 93 for three at lunch, Sharma and Jadeja were wise to the England captain’s various schemes, especially when the ball began to reverse contact for Anderson in four overs.
Egos were put aside here, Sharma instead preferring to celebrate the loose stuff that was too regular from the spinners. It was a shock to the eyes to shoot into the nineties, a slender helicopter whip from Rehan Ahmed, and the statisticians roared late in the over when he turned back and pumped a leg over the rope to go over recorded by MS Dhoni. 211 six years as India’s all-format captain.
India’s advantage, then. Although given the nature of this series, it would be too early to promise that their flag will be raised at the end of this series.
