England lead India 1-0 India as the teams prepare for the second test match which gets underway in Chennai on Saturday.
India were trading at around 4/9 favourites to win the first test in this 4 match series but England put in an inspired display to come out on top by 227 runs. The teams remain in Chennai for the second test so it's worth dwelling on how the series opener panned out.
England won the toss and opted to bat first and the piled on 578 runs with the major contributions coming from Joe Root (218), Sibley (87) and Stokes (82), Bumrah and Ashwin both claimed 3 wickets.
India's first innings reply hit early trouble at 73/4 although Pujara (73), Pant (91) and Sundar (85 not out) helped them to a total of 337.
England's lead was commanding but time was becoming an issue. A much more hasty second innings closed on 178 all out (Root 40, Ashwin 6 wickets) and given the victory target was 381 it was largely a question of whether India could hold out for a draw.
Gill (50) and Kohli (72) were the only Indian batsmen to offer resistance as Jack Leach and Jimmy Anderson claimed 4 wickets and 3 wickets respectively. India were all out for 192 with plenty of Day 5 time remaining and England are 1 up with 3 to play.
This was how the sides lined up in the first test.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
England: Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Daniel Lawrence, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wk), Dominic Bess, Jofra Archer, Jack Leach, James Anderson
The Betting, 2nd Test Match Result
India 7/10
Draw 4/1
England 13/5
The outright series betting has changed significantly but India are still favourites at around 27/20 with a drawn series 12/5 and England can be backed at around
15/8.
India are 3/1 to win the next 3 tests and a 2-2 series draw is priced at 14/5.
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict:
The first test was profitable with Root and Stokes scoring first innings 50's for England and punting aside the result sets the series up as a likely good watch.
Much will depend on Virat Kohli for the hosts and after the Indian skipper highlighted the below par first innings total as a crucial factor in losing the first test I'm siding with him to score a century in India's first knock.
With the ball Ashwin is favourite to be leading wicket taker for India in the first innings but in the belief that he will be more of a threat later in the game preference is for Jasprit Bumrah.
Bets: To score a century in the first innings Kohli? (yes) at 7/2
Top Indian bowler 1st innings Jasprit Bumrah at 5/2
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