India vs Windies | Takeaways: Kohli-Shaw parallel and Shannon Gabriel inroads
ICC
India ended the day with 308/4 after a strong 146-run partnership between Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant. On a day, when Windies threatened to take the game away from India, Virat Kohli and Prithvi Shaw posted a contrasting stamp of impressions that somehow mirrored future Team India.
Different tricks and parallel approach makes Kohli, Shaw stand out
Prithvi Shaw and Virat Kohli are two completely contrasting characters on a cricket field. Shaw swears by hitting almost every balls, while the Indian skipper is more at home when he trusts his
For Virat Kohli, his confidence in the forward defence has been the basic foundation of his game and against spinners, he demonstrated that beautifully. When the duo of Jomel Warrican and Devendra Bishoo tried to target the good-length area, he countered that regularly with strong defence and played with soft hands by keeping the bat ahead of the front pad. It helped him get the occasional boundaries and also some singles and couples. But, the important fact of the matter was that he didn’t let the opposition to dominate him. It was a typical Kohli display - one that was based on judgement and pure power of concentration until the moment Jason Holder trapped him LBW for 45.
Then meet Prithvi Shaw, who was only playing his second match at the senior international level. He was assured with his stroke-play and seems like a master of finding gaps. But, if you think it was only instinct, you are definitely mistaken. Shaw showcased a unique way of attacking the fast bowlers both on the front foot and back foot, with the latter being more prominent. However, for him, his front toe very rarely touches the ground that allows the ball to come to him and negates the chance of being LBW to a drastic measure when he goes forward. With Windies pacers not keeping a probing line, he understood the depth of his crease to score those valuable 70 runs at the top.
Two contrasting characters, batting at two different positions but were assured with their primary job in hand.
How Gabriel helped Windies make a comeback in the game
Shannon Gabriel is a bowler mostly reliant on his pace to deceive the batsmen, but today, especially in the first session, he was completely ineffective. Shaw took him to the cleaners and although KL Rahul struggled against him, he was nowhere close to his best. However, there was a little passage in the game for which Windies would definitely thank Gabriel for.
In the post-lunch session, Gabriel came in to bowl the 20th over of the innings. The first ball he kept the off-stump line and swung it away against Pujara. On the next ball, he bowled a juicy full-toss to which Pujara played a harmless on-drive. Then, immediately, Gabriel went to the corner of the crease and kept the shine as if he was bowling an outswinger but used the angle to bring it in. He followed it with a ball from the middle of the box, which shaped away a touch and Pujara hung his bat out to give a catch to wicket-keeper. It was a good example of using the crease and the old ball well, which eventually dismissed Virat Kohli as well. Two important wickets and who will mind him conceding those first session runs now?
Windies’ seamers impress with lengths, reverse, pretty much like Umesh Yadav
When it comes to reverse swing, Umesh Yadav is right up there. He may not be consistent enough with his lengths but never shies away from expressing himself through his pace and the ability to do so many things with the old ball. On Day 1 of the ongoing Test, Umesh, however, was a combo pack that any team would love to have. After an ordinary first session, he breathed fire despite Roston Chase and Jason Holder negated him in the latter phase of the game, it doesn’t take anything away from him.
As Windies decided to prefer Jomel Warrican over Roston Chase, they were a pacer short and all the responsibility was on Holder and Gabriel’s shoulders. And the uneven and rough surfaces of Uppal made their job easier and they got the ball to reverse-swing in the 18th over itself. Getting the ball to reverse so early gave the team an extra dimension. Since a bowler needs extra
Another factor that helped him was that the ball was not old, so it didn’t take a lot to take the ball in. Even when the ball was holding its line, that created the illusion of it going away. Seeing that Holder also used the same tactic and although he didn’t have the same amount of pace as his partner, he managed to extract a bit of seam movement off the air. Reverse followed soon after and India found the going tough.
