Ranchi: In-form pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was rested, but that hardly mattered on the opening morning of the fourth Test against England.
Even as senior medium-pacer Mohammad Siraj leaked runs, debutant Akash Deep took over the wicket-taking duty. The Bihar-born Akash, who plays Ranji Trophy for Bengal, shook the England top order with a three-wicket burst in the first hour of play.
It took a solid unbeaten 106 from Joe Root to lift England from a precarious 112/5 to a healthy 302/7 at stumps on Friday.
Akash was unlucky not to have claimed his first Test wicket earlier, as a brilliant delivery which uprooted opener Zak Crawley’s off stump turned out to be a no-ball.
But he didn’t have to wait long as he induced an outside edge off the other opener Ben Duckett’s bat to be pouched by wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel.
Akash made it a two-wicket over as he trapped Ollie Pope leg-before wicket two balls later.
And in his next over, Akash again went through the defence of Crawley with an inswinger to castle the Englishman – this time off a legitimate delivery – after he had helped himself to 42 at a run a ball.
Jonny Bairstow was in an aggressive mood, racing to 35 off 38 before Ravichandran Ashwin trapped him leg-before wicket. And when Ravindra Jadeja had skipper Ben Stokes LBW on the stroke of lunch, England were in dire straits at 112/5.
Senior batter Root, who had managed just 77 runs in six innings in the series so far, showed his class with a disciplined knock on a pitch which was two-paced and provided some assistance to bowlers.
Root found a dependable partner in Ben Foakes, the two rescuing England with a 113-run partnership and denying India any breakthrough between lunch and tea.
Siraj sent back a gritty Foakes (47) and Tom Hartley in the final session, but pacer Ollie Robinson (31 batting) helped Root add 57 priceless runs for the unbeaten eighth wicket.
Brief scores: England 302/7 in 90 overs (Joe Root 106 batting, Ben Foakes 47, Zak Crawley 42; Akash Deep 3/70, Md Siraj 2/60).
Match to continue on Day 2.
