Joe Root’s Century helps England recover from shaky begin, reach 302/7 on Day 1 at Ranchi

The 4th Test match between India and England is happening at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi. The Indian right-arm pacer Akash Deep made his debut in the Test by replacing Jasprit Bumrah. He received his Test cap from the head coach Rahul Dravid and took a blessing from his mother.

The debutant pacer Akash Deep shook the visitors by dismissing both the openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett in the morning session and returned figures of 3/70 to make a dream debut.

He recovered from a no-ball setback to dismiss Ben Duckett (11), Ollie Pope (0), and Zak Crawley (42) and left England at 57/3.

After the lunch break, Joe Root bounced back to form with a defiant century on Friday to help England recover from a shaky begin and end Day 1 of the Ranchi Test at a comfortable position of 302/7.

Root had been having a horror run rate till now in the Test series against India, have scored a century in the 4th Test at Ranchi.

On Friday, he shed the ‘Bazball’ approach that wasn’t working in his favour even if some of his teammates benefited from the same and adopted the approach that had worked in his favour for more than a decade, bringing up his 31st Test century as a result.

England had been reduced to 57/3 after Ben Stokes opted to bat, with Akash Deep dismissing the top 3 batters. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja would then strike later in the morning session to reduce England to 112/5 at lunch.

Joe Root, mounted a rescue in the company of Ben Foakes, stitching a partnership with the wicketkeeper cum batter that was 113 and took the visitors past 200.

An unbroken 57-run partnership with Ollie Robinson, who replaces Mark Wood in the English XI in Ranchi, would then ensure the visitors crossed 300 before close to play. English face a must-win situation at Ranchi and Root’s knock will have given Stokes and Co hope of taking the series to a decider in Dharmasala.

Brief scores are England 302/7 in 90 overs (Joe Root 106 not out, Ben Foakes 47, Akash Deep 3/70, Mohammed Siraj 2/60) against India.

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