While all the English focus before the third Test was on Ben Stokes winning his 100th cap – the various greatest hits compilations serving as a drum beat to this pivotal match – 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 the VVIP event to mark this, Jay Shah announced Rohit Sharma will lead India at this year’s T20 World Cup, promising the trophy would be theirs. “Hum Bharat ka jhanda gadenge” (We will hoist India’s flag).
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This coronation was slightly curious to the outsider, Shah being secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, not head selector, and Sharma widely expected to do the job anyway. Perhaps it was designed as a public pick-me-up. After all, the heartache from last year’s World Cup final was among the various speculative diagnoses as to why Sharma had been a dormant volcano during the first two Tests.
Either way, that volcano finally blew its stack on the opening day in Rajkot as Sharma went from dormant to dominating. Over the course of five hours, and after an alarming start at the other end, India’s Test captain knitted together Test century No 11 with 131 from 196 balls. Allied with an unbeaten 106 from Ravindra Jadeja, and an eye-catching 62 from Safaraz Khan on debut, it saw hosts reach an ominous 326 for five at stumps.
The late surge from Sarfaraz, a tubby right-hander with a bulging first-class average of 69.85, will have been celebrated on the maidans of Mumbai. His father and coach, Naushad, was crying when the cap came out first thing and must have been in heaven after tea. Emerging at 237 for four once Sharma finally departed, Sarfaraz ransacked nine fours and one six in a veritable whirlwind of see-ball-hit-ball form.
All of which was threatening to overshadow Jadeja, who had played the anchor role in a 204-run fourth-wicket stand with Sharma. That was until, one short of his century and with his home crowd waiting for the latest sword-twirling celebration, Jadeja called – and then thought better of – a single that saw Sarfaraz gallingly run out.
Mark Wood was the fielder to throw down the stumps here, one final reward on a day of typical pace and heart that ended with three wickets in his personal column. These included Sharma, rushed on the pull and popping the ball to mid-wicket. Although India’s captain was angrier about Sarfaraz being cut short in the dying embers of the session, throwing his cap to the floor and erupting with expletives.
Still, Safaraz crackling was built on his and Jadeja’s experience coming to the fore. The last time India played a Test series without one of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rahul Dravid or Sachin Tendulkar in their XI was 1989 and 45 minutes into this match, three rookies had departed. Pujara, netting out the back with his Saurashtra teammates ahead of a Ranji Trophy fixture, is too gentle a character to have smiled though.
England certainly were, the tourists assisted by some early moisture in that pitch that initially offset Sharma winning the toss. This much was clear when Rajat Patidar’s departure made it 33 for three in the ninth over, the right-hander fooled by a ball from Tom Hartley that gripped in the surface and bounced, plopping a soft catch to cover.
But chiefly it came down to the Wood bursting out of the traps on his return. Jimmy Anderson’s 25th new ball-partner in Test cricket vaporised both of last week’s centurions, Yashasvi Jaiswal edging to slip when one zipped off the seam, before a skittish nine-ball duck from Shubman Gill was ended with one nipped the other way. When Wood then clonked Sharma’s grille with a nasty bouncer, India appeared to be seeing stars.
A masterstroke followed from India, however, Jadeja promoted to No 5 – a spot where he had averaged 11 in six previous attempts – and setting about pouring concrete into the holes with Sharma. That said, India’s captain did experience a couple of near misses in the twenties. Joe Root failed to snatch a sharp low catch to his left at slip off the bowling of Hartley – unsighted by Sharma attempting to whip through mid-wicket – and Anderson seeing an lbw overturned by a feathered inside edge.
Thereafter it was a case of England waiting for the error that didn’t arrive until midway through the evening 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, not least when the ball started reversing a touch for Anderson in a probing four over spell.
Egos were put to one side here, Sharma instead preferring to feast off the all-too regular loose stuff from the spinners. His shot to get into the nineties, a wristy helicopter whip off Rehan Ahmed, was a treat for the eyes, while the statisticians were purring late in the piece when he rocked back and pumped the leg-spinner over the rope to surpass MS Dhoni’s record 211 sixes as India’s all-format captain.
Advantage India, then. Although given the nature of this series, it would be too soon to promise their flag will be hoisted at the end of this one.
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