Jaiswal hits century but debut wickets for England’s Bashir peg India back

On a day when English eyes were trained on their side’s latest gamble on youth, it was one of India’s greenhorns who delivered the biggest payout. Yashasvi Jaiswal, an opener whose backstory may well make a decent biopic in time, registered his first Test century on home soil with a performance of elegant, calculated aggression.

Not that it wasn’t a fairytale start for young Shoaib Bashir in this second Test. After being presented with his cap by the injured Jack Leach before what appeared a critical toss, the 20-year-old off-spinner put all that visa strife behind him in Visakhapatnam. Bashir winkled out Rohit Sharma to leg slip with just his 21st ball of the morning and bookended his day with a second when Axar Patel slashed to backward point before stumps. If Bashir slept before this debut, Sharma was a victim he would have dreamed about.

Over the course of three sessions on a dry, flat surface, it was Jaiswal who chiefly dominated. The 22-year-old left-hander is some player; a product of remarkable ambition given, aged 10, he moved 1,000 miles from his town in Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai in order to pursue his cricketing dream. There he spent four years living in the groundsman’s tent on the Azad Maidan, honing the craft that enabled him to unfurl 17 fours and five mighty sixes on this opening day en route to an unbeaten 179 from 257 balls.

But by the close India had slightly stumbled to 336 for six which, given the limited resources at his disposal and the coin going against him, was a healthy return for Ben Stokes. An attack led by Jimmy Anderson, with three rookie spinners, might have wished for an extra seamer at times. But by the same token, Rehan Ahmed – the likeliest to make way – delivered two breakthroughs in the evening, the teenage leg-spinner bowling Rajat Patidar for 32 in agonising fashion (a forward defensive from which the ball trickled back on to the stumps) before KS Bharat was out cutting to backward point five minutes from the close.

Stokes claims not to care about the scoreboard but the England captain was surely grateful for the return of Anderson, who began his 22nd year as a Test cricketer by shipping just 30 runs across 17 overs. Control was also allied with the wicket of Shubman Gill before lunch when, on 34, the right-hander pushed at a fifth stump line and Ben Foakes, on a silken outing with the gloves, held a diving effort in front of first slip.

It was a second breakthrough in the morning. Bashir had entered the fray in the 12th over and switched from viral video to Test cap No 713. Across five spells he betrayed few nerves, a tall action that takes a skip to the right before delivery was smooth and his lengths were as consistent as a newcomer could hope for. The wicket of Sharma was a lovely moment too, a subdued start by India’s captain ending when he fiddled a ball that gripped into the adhesive hands of Ollie Pope around the corner.

From 103 for two at lunch India dominated in the afternoon, Jaiswal turning his second half-century of the series into three figures by 1.20pm local time – a second century in just six Tests after his 171 on debut in the Caribbean last year. It came amid a cat-and-mouse battle with his old mate Tom Hartley – one that saw a sharp chance evade Joe Root’s fingertips at slip on 73 – and was sealed by a booming six off the left-armer.

As a lively crowd of roughly 10,000 in this breezy ground erupted, Jaiswal dropped his bat, removed his helmet and flapped his outstretched arms towards the India dressing room. Amid a drop-off in experience caused by injuries and absentees – Root’s 11,447 Test runs now eclipsing their entire XI – Jaiswal had taken flight and was soon soaring, muscling his side through to 225 for three by tea with some rasping drives and cut shots

The one man to fall in the session was Shreyas Iyer, under-edging Hartley on 27 to produce a sharp, low catch from Foakes. But if honours were even in the morning and India won the afternoon, England finished the stronger. The hosts did trowel a further 111 runs on to their stash but three further dismissals continued their lack of ruthlessness from the first Test, as Ahmed and Bashir struck. With Jaiswal still there, this was a day for the kids.