Jaiswal’s unbeaten 179 powers India to 300+ on Day 1 of the England Test

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, India posted 336 runs at the loss of six wickets on Day 1 of the second Test against England at Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

India’s opening batter, Yashasvi Jaiswal, was the stand-out performer of the day as he piled up a magnificent 179 off 257 balls, including 17 fours and five sixes. It was his career-best innings as he went past his previous best of 171, which came against the West Indies in Roseau in July 2023.

Along with captain Rohit Sharma (14), Jaiswal stitched a 40-run opening partnership before the former was dismissed by debutant Shoaib Bashir. Later, India’s middle order, which was expected to deliver a better performance than the first Test, failed to impress. Shubman Gill (34), Shreyas Iyer (27), and debutant Rajat Patidar (32) got off to steady starts but were unable to capitalise. While the 41-year-old James Anderson (1/30) dismissed Gill to account for his 691st Test scalp, spinners Tom Hartley (1/74) and Rehan Ahmed got rid of Iyer and Patidar, respectively.

Bashir accounted for his second wicket (2/100) of the day as he sent Axar Patel (27) back to the pavilion just after he put together 50 runs for the fifth wicket with Jaiswal. Shortly later, India lost their sixth wicket as Ahmed (2/61) got the lucky breakthrough for England. Wicket-keeper-batter Srikar Bharat (17) perished to a non-wicket-taking delivery, which any other day would have set a date with the boundary rope.

With Ravichandran Ashwin (5*) joining hands with Jaiswal, India would resume Day 2 on Saturday in a relatively comfortable position.