Joe Root scores a double century to put England in command

England captain Joe Root scored an impressive double century in Chennai as England continues to take control in the first test against India.

Root resumed the day on 128 runs and scored 218 to extend his run of form on his 100th test match and place himself in the record books.

Dom Sibley’s dismissal in the last over on day one saw India with a chance to undo all of England’s hard work from when play resumed.

England started the morning on 263-3 and aimed to build on an impressive first day, with Ben Stokes new to the crease.

Stokes opted to attack as the pitch started to show signs of wear.

Having made a composed start to his innings, a shot that surprised everyone when Stokes popped his 16th ball back over Ravi Ashwin’s head for six to bring the session alive.

Washington Sundar found some trampoline bounce from the footholes outside Stokes’ off stump in the wearing pitch, while Ashwin was convinced he had trapped Stokes lbw reverse-sweeping shot, only to discover on review that the ball had hit Stokes on the glove.

Just five balls later India used their second review when Shahbaz Nadeem’s arm ball struck Root on the pad with the ball tracking confirming that the ball would have missed the top of leg stump.

Stokes had two further lives, when Ashwin put down a half-chance off his own bowling and Cheteshwar Pujara, diving at full stretch, failed to cling on at midwicket. Stokes made his intentions clear by slog-sweeping Nadeem for six three balls after the second drop, before reverse-sweeping him for a pair of boundaries to bring up fifty.

Stokes continued to score freely after lunch, clubbing Nadeem over long-on and clipping Bumrah’s slower ball through midwicket, but eventually holed out, slog-sweeping straight down square leg’s throat.

Ollie Pope then joined Root at 387 for four following Stokes dismissal and he looked slightly rusty after six months out through injury.

India’s third and final review was used when Pope swept to leg gully, but replays showed it had clearly hit the forearm rather than the glove.

Credit: England Cricket

Root, who spent most of the morning session playing runner to Stokes, picked up where he had left off on Friday scoring runs to help keep the score ticking over for the visitors. He was creative in playing reverse-sweeps and laps, but reached his double with a more orthodox shot, skipping down the wicket to swing Ashwin over the long-on boundary for six.

India were becoming increasingly desperate in their bid to dismiss him. He also passed Alec Stewart to go third in the list of England’s all-time leading run-scorers.

But the breakthroughs arrived after the interval. Having miscued an Ashwin full toss over Pant’s head two overs before, Pope was struck in front while playing down the wrong line to a ball that didn’t turn and was plumb lbw to leave England five down.

In the following over, Root was pinned in front of leg stump by Nadeem, playing down the wrong line to one that skidded on, and while England warmly applauded his epic innings, India sensed an opportunity to expose the tail at 477 for six.

Root has scored 644 Test runs in five innings over the past four weeks, and his run tally in 2021 is more than double that of his nearest challenger, Steven Smith.

Steve Smth
Photo: ICC

Jos Buttler and Dom Bess rebuilt with an unflashy stand, with Buttler rifling Ashwin for a pair of fours, cutting balls either side of point. He benefitted from Kohli’s enthusiasm to review when he got a thin edge behind off Sundar, which was given not out by umpire Anil Chaudhary to India’s chagrin. Ultra-Edge confirmed that the decision would have been overturned if India had been able to review.

The stand took the total past 500 as India’s hard graft continued, before the tireless Ishant Sharma took two wickets in two balls, extracting prodigious reverse-swing with the old ball.

First, Buttler left one alone that he thought would miss his off stump only to look back and see it pegged back, before Jofra Archer made a mess of a similar delivery and was cleaned up first ball. Ishant’s double-strike took him to 299 career wickets, though he could not complete 300 with a hat-trick.

Jack Leach joined Bess, who offered a straightforward chance to Rohit at midwicket only to be put down, and with India’s no-ball struggles returning in the final half-hour, they had added 30 together by the close. When they resume in the morning, it will be the first time in 20 years that England’s first innings has extended into the third day uninterrupted.

The scorecard from close of day two.

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