Jennings celebrates after scoring his maiden Test century on debut
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
It was the Keaton Jennings show for most of the first day in Mumbai as the opening batsman scored a century on debut, but spinner Ravichandran Ashwin spearheaded India’s comeback with four late wickets to leave the honours even going into the second day.
Jennings became only the eighth English opener to make a century on debut and is the 19th player overall from England to achieve the feat. Furthermore, the 24-year-old etched his name in the record books as he made the highest score by a debutant at the Wankhede Stadium, surpassing the 88 runs made by Owais Shah in March 2006.
Choosing to bat first after winning the toss, Jennings looked nervous early on, especially after he was dropped on zero by Karun Nair off the bowling of Umesh Yadav in the fourth over of the match.
However, the Durham star quickly found his feet and began to show why he had been called up to the Test team as a replacement for Haseeb Hameed.
Prior to the game, England captain Alastair Cook admitted that he didn’t know much about Jennings, but the way they batted in tandem looked as if they had been playing with each other for years.
The pair amassed a 99-run partnership, during which Jennings surpassed his fifty, before Cook was stumped by Parthiv Patel off the bowling of Ravindra Jadeja just four runs short of his half-century.
During his knock though, Cook became only the sixth batsman in Test history and first from England to score 2,000 runs against India. The other five batsmen to have accomplished this milestone are Ricky Ponting, Clive Lloyd, Javed Miandad, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Michael Clarke.
Joe Root managed to get off to an encouraging start, making 21 runs, but he was unable to convert it into a bigger score as he was dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin.
Jennings and Moeen Ali stabilised the innings with a 94-run stand, during which Jennings brought up his maiden century and Moeen his half-century.
With England in cruise control once again, India found themselves in a rare spot of bother. But, that all changed when Ashwin removed Moeen for 50, which came off 104 balls and included four boundaries and six.
Moeen scored his ninth Test fifty
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Two balls later, Jennings was on his way back to the pavilion as he became Ashwin’s third victim after having made a career-best 112 off 219 deliveries, which included 13 boundaries.
Things went from bad to worse for the tourists as wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, who has been one of their most consistent performers with the bat this year, also fell to Ashwin after scoring just 14 runs.
Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler managed to guide England safely to stumps as they put together an unbeaten 39-run stand.
Stokes finished on 25 off 84 balls, which included two boundaries, while Buttler also struck two boundaries during his knock of 18 not out, which came off 37 deliveries.
Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets, while Jadeja claimed one.
Ashwin finished with figures of 4-75 off 30 overs at the end of the day
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
With his four wickets, Ashwin took his tally of wickets in the longest format to 239 and he subsequently overtook Javagal Srinath as India’s seventh-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Srinath took 236 Test wickets during his illustrious career.
England ended day one on 288/5 and will continue batting on Friday at 09:30 local time or 04:00 GMT.