India vs England 2021, 1st Test Day 2 Live Cricket Streaming: Rohit, Rahul to resume at 21/0; IND eyes lead vs ENG

Hello and welcome to Sportstar's LIVE coverage of day Two of the first Test between India and England as action unfolds at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

3:05PM: Stat Alert: India openers since 2018. Not a bright set of numbers to look at. Rohit and Rahul have placed themselves well to return to the crease today. Both batters were well assured while leaving the balls outside off-stump while presenting a solid defensive technique. Rohit would want to finally break the mould of his overseas century drought and so would Rahul, who's returning to the fray after quite some time.

IND openers in overseas Test since 2018: 22 MTS, 1878 runs, 23.18 AVG, 1 100S, 8 50s

 

2:50PM: Bright and beaming in Nottingham, although the forecast for the evening does seem a bit gloomy.

 

2:40PM:  Here are some key stats and numbers to watch out for today:

Only sixoverseas openers have scored a hundred in England since Jan. 2016. KL Rahul, Kraigg Brathwaite, Dean Elgar, Devon Conway, Shan Masood and Kusal Silva have scored one tons each in the period. India skipper Virat Kohli is 125 runs away from 23,000 international runs. Kohli will be the quickest batter in history to reach the feat.  620 - that's the number of days Virat Kohli has gone without an international hundred. Jimmy Anderson needs three wickets to surpass Anil Kumble (619) and become the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests. Ajinkya Rahane needs 16 runs to complete 8000 international runs.

Day 1 Review

A near perfect day on the first day of an overseas tour - not a happy treasure India is fond of having pretty often. However, on Wednesday in a bright and beaming day at Trent Bridge, Virat Kohli's team India came out all guns blazing as it formally reopened its bid for the World Test Championship.

Joe Root's men - depleted on paper but yet slight favourites in their backyard - was shunned from the start as India's seamers put up a masterclass in the middle. While Shami's relentless line and lengths bogged down the batters from end, Jasprit Bumrah's fine comeback to form had him stutter the batters from the other end. While skipper Root's fifty staved a major debacle, the lack of support from the rest of the top-order meant England stooped to its fifth-lowest first innings score ever in a Test match at home.

READ: IND vs ENG, 1st Test Day 1: India 21/0 at stumps after Bumrah 4-fer stuns England

To cap off a perfect day, India's openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul - previously alien to playing the long waiting game - did well to see off the England pace attack with a careful, methodical approach to negate the swing and seam on a tricky track and pushed India to 21 for no loss at stumps.

 

A massive head-start for the visitor on day one, and if all goes well in the morning session on Thursday, Joe Root's men will be left with a lot of questions in a month-long series in whites.

WHAT THEY SAID

Marcus Trecothick, ENG batting coach: “They’re (Indian pacers) probably at their most potent in comparison to where they’ve been for a few years. They have a lot of bases covered. You can see the guys the guys who are not playing, how much quality they have also. They have a good stock of red-ball bowlers currently. They don’t get to be in the World Test Championship final for no reason. They play home and away, so they’ve got to have a good seam attack to back that up. Mohammed Shami, IND pacer: "We are in a good position right now. We should bat with a lot of focus tomorrow, particularly in the first hour and not worry too much about the scoreboard. Once we see through that phase, I feel we can aim for a lead."

The experts and pundits have had their say. Here are a few of them to keep you in the loop ahead of the series opener:

James Anderson: India can't complain if we leave a bit of grass on the pitch Ben Stokes’ absence a huge plus for India, says Sunil Gavaskar India Tour of England 2021: Nehra backs Rohit, Bumrah to succeed in England India’s lower-order ready to contribute with bat against England: Rahane Leave Pujara alone, it's for individuals to figure drawbacks in their game: Kohli

Playing XIs

India XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, England Full Squad: Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root(c), Jonny Bairstow, Daniel Lawrence, Jos Buttler(w), Ollie Robinson, Sam Curran, Stuart Broad, James Anderson,

WHERE TO WATCH IND VS ENG 1st TEST LIVE?

The first Test between India and England will be shown LIVE on SONY SIX and SONY TEN 4 channels and streamed online on Sony LIV and Jio TV from 3.30 pm IST.