England captain Alastair Cook has not had a regular opening partner since Andrew Strauss’s retirement in 2012. The search could have just ended with Haseeb Hameed, who scored an unbeaten half-century in his debut Test and showed all the qualities required to be an opener in the longest format of the game. Hameed had given a glimpse of his skills during his 82-ball sojourn in the first innings, where he scored 31 classy runs. In the late evening sun on day four, in slightly more testing conditions, the 19-year-old showed the whole picture as he went on to become the third youngest Englishman to score a Test fifty.
Hameed displayed great footwork against India’s spinners and left the ball well against the pacers. His best shot was a calm flick off the front foot towards mid-wicket after picking leg-spinner Amit Mishra’s googly from around the wicket. He was so good that he forced India to make their first bad call with the Decision Review System.
It was in some ways a reminder of his partner’s debut innings 10 years ago in the same country, when Cook had scored a century in the second innings in Nagpur. India has a knack of unearthing some great foreign talents: Joe Root, Michael Clarke, Kane Williamson and Cook in the last 15 years, and Clive Lloyd and Gordon Greenidge before them, are just some of the examples. If Hameed does not go on to join the league of these guys, it will be a big surprise.
Not many would have expected England’s score to be 114/0 at stumps considering the Rajkot pitch had just started to show some uneven bounce and turn. England will definitely face more turning tracks as this series moves forwards, but it was nonetheless a great effort from the two openers with contrasting levels of experience.
There were some anxious moments as the innings began, with Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin getting copious bounce and turn off some of their deliveries, but the two batsmen showed incredible resolve to stick in the middle. The Indians were at fault too, for delivering too many loose balls. In the first 20 overs of the session, there were only two maidens bowled – in the third session of a day-four pitch. There were too many deliveries that allowed Cook and Hameed to go for their shots and settle in.
Earlier in the day, Ashwin took India to a position of safety in the post-lunch session with a composed half-century with the bat. He had come in to bat at 349/5, when India’s deficit was still a substantial 188. He lost his captain, Virat Kohli, soon after as the score became 361/6, with only the lower order left. It wasn’t anything new for Ashwin: he has batted with the tail on numerous occasions and knows what to do. Luckily, he found support in Wriddhiman Saha (35) and some from Jadeja, as he slowly knocked the runs off India’s deficit.
Ashwin’s batting was smart and simple: attack the lose deliveries and respect the good ones. He did not take any unnecessary risks when Rashid and Co were starting to get purchase off the surface. As he took India to 488, just 49 runs short of England, it was a job well done. He was hit for 167 runs in 46 overs and got just two wickets for his efforts. This innings of 70 with the bat would have given him his confidence back and got him raring to go with the ball. Unfortunately for him, the English openers were equally determined to stay in the middle.
Brief score:
England 537 (Ben Stokes 128, Joe Root 124, Moeen Ali 117; Ravindra Jadeja 3/86, Mohammed Shami 2/65, R Ashwin 2/167) and 114/0 (Haseeb Hameed 62, Alastair Cook 46) lead India 488 (Murali Vijay 126, Cheteshwar Pujara 124; Adil Rashid 4/114, Zafar Ansari 2/77, Moeen Ali 2/85) by 163 runs.
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