India vs England | Takeaways : Rahane-Kohli tutorial for Indian batsmen and Shikhar Dhawan’s flaw correction

India vs England | Takeaways : Rahane-Kohli tutorial for Indian batsmen and Shikhar Dhawan’s flaw correction

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India ended the Day 1 of the third Test with a slight edge over England as Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli's magnificent partnership of 159 runs led India to 307/6 at stumps. While their batting was one for sore eyes, Shikhar Dhawan also made a slight technical change which helped him immensely.

Woakes set up Rahul nicely

The way Chris Woakes bowled and batted at Lord’s was enough for Joe Root to even go as far as resting Sam Curran for Ben Stokes. Some feel that resting Curran was a decision that may haunt the English, but as things stand at the moment, Woakes proved to be an inspiring decision. 

After coming into bowl in the 15th over, Woakes beat Dhawan through the late seam movement and even extracted a bottom edge on the penultimate ball of the over. If anything, those were the prelude to what was about to come in his next overs. In the 21st over, Woakes bowled five away-going deliveries all pitching on off and outside the off stump. It was a tough examination of Rahul’s patience, but the Karnataka batsman read it nicely, moved across, and finally left them easily. Most importantly, he opened the face of the bat and didn’t throw that around like a clueless kid in the play school. 

While Rahul was at his best, Woakes was too intelligent a character to allow the opposition cruise away easily. The Warwickshire bowler came slightly wider off the crease for the last ball of the over and by then, Rahul had already moved across, anticipating another away-swinger. But, Woakes outfoxed him by taking the ball in and as a result, Rahul was stuck on the crease and the ball hit his front pad. Had he not moved across and waited for the ball to land, he could have easily defended it back to the bowler. But, Woakes was the one to be credited for persisting to the line for the first five balls and then changing it in the last moment despite Rahul looking so comfortable on the crease. 

Dhawan’s point of contact helps him bury Edgbaston demon

Indian openers did a good job by laying down a 60-run foundation for the middle-order to bank on. While Rahul was technically pleasing and doing all the right things on the track, it was actually Dhawan whose batting was very satisfying for me for a very specific reason. Dhawan made a very small but significant technical change to his stroke-play that helped him score those important 35 runs. 

While at Edgbaston, Dhawan appeared to be in a hurry to force the shots rather than waiting for the ball to get to him, at Trent Bridge, he was exactly the opposite. Instead of jumping onto the ball, he allowed the leather to come to him and considering the bounce was not that prevalent in the first few overs, he was successful in scoring runs from backward inflection point. 

It basically helped him in two ways - first, the wait gave him enough time to observe the trajectory of the ball and secondly, helped him play those cut shots when the width is on offer. Although some may argue that it was mostly because of the fact that the pacers had to pull their length back a bit so as to make up for the less assistance for bowlers, it was the batsman’s effectiveness to stay backward at the time which worked in India’s favour. It is an interesting strategy for an opener and to his credit, Dhawan pulled it off well despite scoring only 35 runs. 

How Rahane-Kohli came to the party in unison, finally

There is no pleasing sight in the modern-day cricket than watching Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in full flow against a toupe of bowlers at their best. For the first two Tests, fans were denied Rahane’s rhythmical stroke play against the pacers and today, when the duo got together, what a sight it was. 

In the conditions that make scoring difficult, Kohli took the first charge by lunging forward while moving across to off so as to judge the line outside the first stump and cut the movement. While the movement off the pitch was clearly going to support England as both the edges were possible, the Indian skipper successfully managed to get outside the line when the inside edge was beaten. Same was the case with Rahane too who shuffled across the stumps to play those cover drives and also stayed on the crease to score through backward point and gully on the backfoot. The pleasing aspect of the partnership was that they were not looking to survive when the team was in a precarious situation of 82/3, rather looked to score runs more fluently. 

It made for a riveting watch and when the pitch was settled down and the sun was out, they were in complete control of their innings. It either needed a mistake from a batsman or an amazingly excellent ball to break the partnership. When Rahane tried to gift away his wicket by handing a simple catch to James Anderson at point, he missed it and as a result, the man from Mumbai went on to score another 24 runs before a beauty of a catch by Alastair Cook ended the partnership. The catch came at a time when Rahane was in fifth gear. He can’t be blamed for shifting the gear either cause that was the time to actually put the foot on the accelerator. The new ball was just 13 overs away and each run was going to be vital as per India’s context. 

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