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Third hundred stand this year between Root and Bairstow
1.03pm
And yet, only Jonny Bairstow’s first fifty for England since 2019. Mind-boggling, isn’t it, for someone as gifted? It’s the support root needed and on this instance, the partnership has been an even distribution. For context, take a look at this list of England’s top partnerships this year – Root is involved in the top 13 of them.
The English captain will be pleased at the progress this morning. India have been forced to be conservative already and their bowling now seems like a countdown to the second new ball. Bumrah has been quietly chipping away and the only bowler who has consistently troubled England. Otherwise, this has been England’s best session of the match. The lead is under 150 now. They’ve added 97 to their overnight score without losing a wicket.
Opening hour
12pm
This has been steady going for England, and a particularly impressive innings from Bairstow so far. It’s been no secret that teams have tried to hit his middle stump, and he’s had to work on his game in the V as a result. Importantly, that doesn’t seem to have affected his judgement outside off stump. You see Pujara lately and you get a contrast – he’s become uncertain on both the outside as well as inside edge, because of the work he had to against the incoming ball. So far, Bairstow looks very organised. The work he’s done hasn’t affected his ability to score quickly either. First hour to England.
Sunny day
10.32am
Hello, welcome back. For the first time in this Test, we’re going to begin the day in glorious sunshine. Perhaps Joe Root’s decision to bowl isn’t looking so bad in retrospect, at least given that so far they haven’t had to deal with overpowered bowling conditions.
They have had to deal with a pretty powerful bowling line-up though, and they’ve done it alright so far. A lot of it, once again, has revolved around Root, but Burns played a strong hand last evening to make sure there wasn’t a collapse as Siraj powered through his spell after tea. They’re 245 behind and the equation is pretty simple – they’ll have to bat all day to be in a position to control this Test.
Varun Shetty is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo