Pujara Gets Busy To Cash In On His Good Form

Just like Rajkot, this pitch at Vizag is also a typical win-the-toss bat-first-pitch. But unfortunately for England, that’s where the similarities between the surfaces end.

The pitch for the first Test had a firmer surface and more grass but the one for the second Test, quite expectedly, has no grass. This pitch is likely to deteriorate at a much faster pace than the one in Rajkot.

Winning the toss in the first Test put England in a position of strength but on this pitch, winning the toss was akin to almost winning the contest i.e. if India bat well in the first innings.

Now that India have batted well on the first day, only a collapse of gigantic proportions on the second day will give England a sniff. India, on the other hand, would have looked to bat England out of this game and in my opinion, they were about 180 runs away from achieving that. So let’s look at the dominant features of yesterday’s action.

England struck early

India didn’t get off to the start they’d wished for as Anderson and Broad reduced the hosts to 22-2. That’s when the Indian team must’ve realised that winning the toss was only half the job done, for the outcome depended on making the first innings count.

In Pujara and Kohli, India had the two finest Indian players of this generation to steady the ship. Right from the beginning of their partnership, the intent to keep the scoreboard moving stood out, especially against spin.