- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The 20-year-old Surrey cricketer ran through India’s top order and got the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal, the India opener who has been in superhuman form in this series.
By: Shubham Ghosh
ENGLAND spinner Shoaib Bashir came up with some serious challenges for the Indian batters on the second day of the fourth Test match in Ranchi and picked four of the first five wickets that the hosts lost, leaving them in a precarious situation.
The 20-year-old tall Pakistani-origin off-break bowler claimed the wickets of Shubman Gill (38), Rajat Patidar (17) and Ravindra Jadeja (12) but his prized scalp was Yashasvi Jaiswal (73), who has been in a superhuman form in this series and has scored more than 600 runs with two consecutive double hundreds.
Bashir, who made his debut in the previous Test in Rajkot after facing a visa-related hassle at the beginning of the tour and finished with four wickets for 196 runs in the match, delivered a far more improved show and claimed four for 84 at the end of the second day’s play.
Read: Root-ed ton leads England fightback in 4th Test against India
India ended Day 2 on 219 for the loss of seven wickets in response to England’s first innings total of 353, still trailing by 134 runs. Besides Bashir, England’s other wicket takers were James Anderson who dismissed India captain Rohit Sharma for two runs and Tom Hartley, who got the wickets of Sarfaraz Khan (14) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1).
Wicket-keeper-batter Dhruv Jurel (30 not out) and Kuldeep Yadav (15 not out) added crucial 42 runs for the eighth wicket till stumps to give the hosts some relief.
Read: Yashasvi Jaiswal takes India back to Sehwag era and that’s a deadly news for bowlers across world
The visitors, who resumed from their overnight score of 302 for 7, added 45 runs before Jadeja claimed the three remaining wickets. Ollie Robinson made his career-best score of 58 while Joe Root, who hit a century on Day 1, remained stranded at 122 not out. England’s last three wickets fell for only six runs and Jadeja was the most successful bowler with four wickets for 67 runs.
England must win the fourth Test to keep the five-match series alive. They won the first match in Hyderabad by 28 runs but India came back strongly to thump them in the second and third matches by 106 runs and 434 runs, respectively.
Brief scores: India 219 for 7 at Day 2 stumps vs England 353 all out in first innings
