The morning in Ranchi had a nice North India October touch to it. It wasn’t cold but it wasn’t hot either. The sun was out in its full glory but it felt good and wasn’t as harsh as it was in the previous two days. There was forecast of cloud and sun playing hide and seek during the course of the Test but there wasn’t any mischief in the morning session.
The only thing which did do some mischief in the first morning of the Test was the pitch! The cracks, the ugly and dry look had already raised some eyebrows in the visiting camp but everyone was waiting how it would behave and when, and how much, it would turn. The wait for the turn was a bit longer as it was debutant Akash Deep who made subtle use of the angles in what was a fiery seven-over spell with the new ball.
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Not long back, the Bengal seamer had troubled England Lions in two fixtures, was fast-tracked into the Indian side, to the surprise of many, and became the fourth Indian player to make his debut in this series. The reason for his inclusion into the squad and eventually the Playing XI, even ahead of his state-mate Mukesh Kumar, for the Ranchi Test is believed to be the extra yards of pace and the ability to rush the batters up. He looked very probing in the net session a couple of days before the match where he bowled at brisk pace, and did just that when he opened the attack with Mohammed Siraj.
Even before his new-ball partner, Akash figured the right length for this surface and made smart use of angles by going wide of the crease, which forced the ball to behave differently. There were plenty of moments where he cut the batters in half with sharp inward movement and didn’t take long to disturb the woodwork. With an absolute peach, the seamer sent Zak Crawley’s off-stump for a cartwheel but there was anti-climax in store as the debutant had overstepped. There was disappointment after the animated celebration but he quickly forgot what had happened and continued the drill – hit the good length and keep angling them in.
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Majority of the deliveries stuck to the sharp incoming route but there were some which deviated away ever so slightly after pitching, and planted doubts in batters’ mind. One of those some were bowled to opener Ben Duckett and he played the angle but was undone by the slight movement off the surface which was enough to find his edge. Finally, Akash could celebrate his maiden Test wicket but he wasn’t done.
One delivery later, he went wide of the crease to Ollie Pope and angled one sharply into the right-hander. Pope was out of his crease and the movement convinced the umpire that it would miss leg but Rohit Sharma took a brave DRS which suggested ball would have hit the leg-stump. The celebrations continued and India were off to a fantastic start with the new ball. It could have been worse for England next ball but Joe Root survived a close LBW shout and this DRS didn’t go India’s way.
The visitors were 47/2 after ten overs and Akash had his tail up. Siraj leaked some runs from the other end but the debutant was in the middle of a very probing spell and finally got his man in his sixth over. It was the same drill which had given him success in the first five overs but that delivery to clean up Crawley did come in a long way to beat the batter’s defence and disturb the woodwork. Bowled at 140 clicks, it looked like a fastish off-cutter which gave Akash and India their third wicket of the morning.
There wasn’t much penetration in remainder of the day as the pitch didn’t do any tricks. From looking below towards the pitch for most of the morning, the focus shifted to the sky above as it was the turn of clouds and sun to do some mischief as they played hide and seek for most of the afternoon.
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