Choosing to bowl first on an overcast morning at Lord’s, England would have been happier taking a few more wickets than it did during the day. In the absence of Stuart Broad, who has been ruled out of the series with a calf injury, Ollie Robinson shared the new ball with James Anderson. Wickets didn’t come by, however, and by the end of the day’s play, England had dismissed only three batsmen - Rohit Sharma (83, 145b), Cheteshwar Pujara (9, 23b) and Virat Kohli (42, 103b).
Speaking to the media at the end of the day’s play, Robinson said his team expected the pitch to be a lot quicker than it was.
“We expected the pitch to be a little bit nippier, a bit quicker. It was a little bit slow. A few of them didn’t carry early, and you’ve got to give credit to the batters sometimes. K. L. played an outstanding knock there. Credit where credit’s due,” Robinson said, summing up the day’s play for England.
Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary
Robinson said England’s fast bowlers bowled well.
“On another day, we might have got a few plays and nicks earlier. I felt we did bowl well. It’s just one of those days where they didn’t nick to us. Probably 10-15 play and misses could be counted. On another day, we might have got two or three down early. We definitely looked at the conditions and thought we could get them two or three down early,” he said.
HIGHLIGHTS - ENG v IND, 2nd TEST, DAY 1
‘Huge’ wicket
Robinson got his only wicket of the day during the final session, minutes before the end of the day’s play. He said England was buoyed seeing the back of Kohli after a hard day’s labour.
“We planned to bowl a fourth or fifth stump line. Back of a length. Luckily, the plan worked. We toiled hard today against the batters, and credit to them, they played well. Getting him was huge and will give us momentum in the morning,” he said.
Did he enjoy taking the new ball with Anderson?
“Yeah, I did. Bit of a privilege really to open the bowling with Jimmy. I did enjoy it, shame we didn’t pick any early wickets,” Robinson replied.
Was it a lesson for him, early on in his Test career, to see such resistance with the bat? “I expected it. Instead of three good batters, you get seven good batters here. That’s international cricket; I expected it. I think I’ve shown in the last couple of games I’m ready for it, and I’m ready for the toil when it comes,” Robinson said.
It seemed Anderson would miss the Test match due to a quad injury. Robinson said Anderson had declared himself fit in the morning and that it was no surprise that he bowled as well as he was expected to (2 for 52, 20 overs).
“Speaking to him personally, he said he was absolutely fine. He declared himself fit in the morning, and I see today he has bowled 20 overs and is the same old Jimmy.”
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