India-England: Axar Patel leads 6-38 and tourists retire by 112

England made a weak batting display to collapse to 112 at the hands of a dominant India on the first day of Test 3 in Ahmedabad.

Zak Crawley, who returned after missing the first two tests with a wrist injury, had an attractive 53, as many runs as his teammates combined.

Crawley was the second batter to fall into a four-wicket meltdown over nine runs, part of an overall slide of the last eight falling by 38.

The day that largest cricket stadium in the world was officially opened, India was 34-2 in response, with one wicket apiece for Jofra Archer and Jack Leach.

Captain Virat Kohli joined Rohit Sharma for a position of 64 in the third wicket, only for England to get the big push from Kohli cutting Leach by 27 just before the close.

Rohit remains undefeated at 57, with India 99-3 and has a golden opportunity to go 2-1 up with one game to play.

England collapses on the biggest stage

The sheer scale of this contest, perhaps England’s most important overseas event outside of an Ashes series since they won in India in 2012, was second only to the magnificent new 110,000-seat stadium.

In contrast to the host’s three spinners, England chose three front-line pitchers, and Archer was joined by reunited James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

As it turned out, there was enough encouragement for bowlers of all stripes to suggest that both approaches had merit, but the composition of either attack is almost immaterial due to England’s horrible performance when batting conditions were likely to be right. top.

While there was a turn, at least six batters were fired for deliveries that did not deviate as the timid and confused tourists were overtaken by Axar.

Later, when they reached the field, England were visibly frustrated when decisions went against them, first when Ben Stokes’ second slip was judged to have grounded a Shubman Gill lead over Broad and later, when the third referee quickly decided that Rohit had avoided being perplexed. .

Axar tours England

For all the questions about England’s rotation policy, this was their first choice in the top six – Rory Burns and Dan Lawrence have been eliminated, rather than rotated.

And while Jonny Bairstow, the first to fall playing the wrong line with Axar, arguably was rusty after resting for two tests, Crawley wasted the same amount of time with his injury and was vastly superior to the rest, driving. . and trim with a sweet timing.

At 74-2, England were progressing well, only for Ravichandran Ashwin to crucially eliminate Joe Root, the captain returned to a full delivery that would have severed the stump of his leg.

Three overs later, Crawley approached Axar in almost identical fashion to Bairstow and the rest of the innings was little more than a procession.

A stunned Ollie Pope was thrown by Ashwin playing in turn, Stokes was one leg before one that Axar skidded on and Archer, the start of England’s long tail, was thrown by Axar.

Leach and Broad did their best before Ben Foakes, who held on to 58 balls for 12, was the last to undo by not spinning, leaving room for Axar.

India takes control

After being humiliated in the first test, India roared again in the second and has taken control of the third with a performance befitting the pomp and pageantry that accompanied the opening of the new stadium.

With 40,000 spectators inside, perhaps the only thing that went wrong from a home point of view were a couple of spotlight failures that momentarily interrupted play.

Axar, in just his second trial, was metronomic with his precision, Ashwin’s tricks were a constant danger and speed thrower Ishant Sharma scored his 100th trial by having Dom Sibley caught in the second slip.

When India got to bat, England couldn’t match their control of the ball, leaving Rohit to cash in with a mix of power and skillful touches.

England’s frustrations over the umpires’ decisions were perhaps misplaced (Stokes appeared to knock down Gill’s catch), but the tourists were able to bounce back, with Archer causing Gill to miss a jerk and Leach catching Cheteshwar Pujara’s leg earlier without scoring. .

Kohli looked sinister and Pope dropped it into Anderson’s ravine on 24, only for Leach, the bowler when Rohit survived the swift work with Foakes gloves, to produce the kind of straightforward delivery he represented. to so many batters from England.

England does not seem to be improving

Former England captain Michael Vaughan: “England’s players don’t seem to be improving and that is a concern.

“A lot of the hitters have been in subcontinental conditions for several weeks and would have faced a lot of effects. Today they were made by a very smart left-arm spinner who kept playing straight.”

England hitter Zak Crawley: “We have very strong closers and we support our closers on any surface. We don’t help them with the lack of runs, but we can fix that in the second inning.

“The team is above my salary level, but I think that was the way they saw it. If we had had more runs, we could have helped our players a little more.”