India dominate day one as Yashavi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill hit centuries
Ben Stokes sent the tourists in after winning the toss, perhaps hoping to unsettle a batting lineup missing the star power of the recently retired Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, but the gambit merely handed over first use of serene batting conditions.
Jaiswal led from the front with 101 on his first appearance on English soil, while Gill finished unbeaten on 127 in his maiden knock as Test captain. Kohli and Sharma's golden legacies are sure to linger, but India's future already looks in safe hands.
By stumps England were staring at a score of 359 for three, weighed down by a long, draining day in sticky summer heat and a difficult road ahead.
Stokes was the pick of the bowlers with two for 43 but Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue struggled to impose themselves in unhelpful conditions.
The story was set in motion at 10.30am, Gill calling wrong at the toss and Stokes opting to field. There was a hint of swing from the new ball, shared by the returning Woakes and Carse on home debut, but it quickly became apparent that there were no terrors in the pitch.
KL Rahul (42) offered a calm head at the top of the order and Jaiswal, well known to England after helping himself to a monstrous series tally of 712 runs when the sides last met in India, shackled his more explosive instincts as he bedded in.
Carse hit him with a rib-tickler in the initial burst but when it came to clear chances, England were coming up empty-handed, squandering a review on Jaiswal when they sent Tongue's ambitious lbw appeal upstairs.
Stumps on the opening day of the 1st Test!
An excellent day with the bat as #TeamIndia reach 359/3 🙌
Captain Shubman Gill (127*) and Vice-captain Rishabh Pant (65*) at the crease 🤝
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/CuzAEnBkyu#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/kMTaCwYkYo
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 20, 2025
India were seven minutes away from a wicketless session when Rahul threw his hands at a wide one from Carse to feed Joe Root at slip.
That breakthrough brought the Yorkshire crowd alive and their celebrations had barely dipped when they enjoyed a second. Sai Sudharsan's first Test innings brought a four-ball duck, flicking Stokes down leg and into Jamie Smith's gloves just seconds after flirting with an identical dismissal.
If that double strike smoothed some of the rough edges from England's slow start, the afternoon's play exposed them again.
Ollie Pope missed the chance to run out out Gill for just one, sweetening the deal with four overthrows, and Harry Brook parried a low edge into the wicketkeeper's helmet to give up five penalty runs.
Jaiswal's first half-century occupied 96 balls and he glided through the gears to get his next 50 in just 48, despite several delays for cramp in his hand. Twice he took three boundaries in an over, first taking aim at the lethargic Woakes and later breezing through the nineties at Carse's expense.
Shoaib Bashir brought some control in his 21 overs but there was not enough spin on offer to turn that into real pressure.
It took a burst of inspiration from Stokes to stop the rot, charging in from round the wicket and toppling Jaiswal's off stump having forced one past the outside edge.
By then Gill had progressed to 63 and had set his sights on a captain's century. He got there with his 14th boundary, a peach of a cover drive off Tongue. It was the sixth hundred of his career but his first outside Asia.
The unpredictable Rishabh Pant poured on further pain with 65 not out. Starting his innings by charging Stokes for four down the ground, he settled into an extended spell of defence before springing into life with some big hits in the closing stages.
Thumbing his nose at convention, Pant danced down again in the final over of the day to flog Woakes over deep square-leg for six.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Michael Vaughan ‘staggered' by England's decision to bowl first against India
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was 'staggered' by Ben Stokes ' decision to put India in on day one of the Rothesay Test series at Headingley. The tourists enjoyed a dream start to this summer's five-match main event, taking control with a commanding total of 359 for three as Yashavi Jaiswal (101) and new captain Shubman Gill (127no) made themselves at home in Yorkshire. England's batters would have been forgiven for wishing it was them piling up the runs on a friendly surface, rather than chasing the ball around in 28 degree heat, and would have had the chance had Gill called correctly. Like Stokes he planned to bowl first, following a trend that has seen six successive victories at this ground by the team who took the the field. But Vaughan, who grew up playing his cricket here for Yorkshire, was still surprised to see his successor gamble against long-term convention. 'I'm an old school traditionalist here at Leeds: when the sun is shining, with dry weather, you bat,' he said. 'I was staggered when he said he was going to bowl. Traditions are out the window. You look at the England side and their strength is in the batting. There is inexperience in the bowling at the moment, but Ben clearly had a gut feeling, and sometimes that has worked.' Vaughan also cautioned against marking the game down as a guaranteed run-fest, pointing to the presence of the inimitable Jasprit Bumrah in the away dressing room. Backed by a big chunk of scoreboard pressure, the paceman is likely to pose a serious threat regardless of conditions. 'We won't know for sure until we see Jasprit Bumrah bowl on it,' said Vaughan. 'He can bowl you out with anything. Until I see that, I will hold my judgment on how flat this pitch is.' With England wearied by their work, they sent out short-term bowling consultant Tim Southee to make their case. The recently retired New Zealander, who has taken over the mentoring role following James Anderson's return to county cricket, said: 'When you win the toss and bowl you expect to make early inroads but the Indian openers negotiated that first hour or so pretty well. 'If there was a little bit of moisture left in it, it was probably going to be this morning. You look at the surface and make the decision based on what you think will give you the best chance. Not all the the time do you get it right. But credit to the Indian batsmen, in particular Jaiswal and Gill, they played a couple of great hands.' Jaiswal, who continued his dominant form against an England side he took for 712 runs in the previous series on Indian soil, was jubilant. 'It was very special, it meant a lot to me,' he said. 'I just wanted to get in and do something for my team, for my country and for myself after the work I have put it. I loved it.'
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
India's new generation feast on England's inconsistent bowlers
Before this Test, the talk was of India's absent stars. No Virat Kohli, no Rohit Sharma. No problem, as it turned out. On a warm Headingley day, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill demanded that our attention switch to the present and the future, rather than the past, with dominant hundreds after India were sent in by Ben Stokes, on a chastening day for England. The decision to bowl first was prompted by statistics that show the past six Tests have been won by the side doing so, and because recent evidence suggests the Headingley pitch does not deteriorate as before, but be that as it may England's bowlers were a long way short of their best. Gill, too, would have bowled first, but after feasting on a diet of inconsistent seam bowling, now has a chance to control the game.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Gill & Jaiswal show India's future is already here
Virat, who?There is a reason Ben Stokes has been trying to banish talk of eye kept firmly fixed on the next Ashes series is English cricket's biggest weakness - one that occasionally borders on wanted to ensure none of that distraction reached his dressing room because, long before it was laid bare by the hosts' toil on day one of the five-Test series against India in Leeds, he knew the size of the challenge his side's current opponents will pose over the next six Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin may have retired, taking with them 296 Tests worth of experience and enough runs and wickets to fuel a country, but India's next generation are here and ready. Stokes and England must already be sick of Yashasvi 23-year-old may look no older than the university freshers who fill the terraced streets around Headingley but the batter who lived in a groundsman's tent as a 10-year-old has quickly become England's India's 4-1 home series win against Stokes' men last year, Jaiswal piled up 712 runs and sent their greatest bowler James Anderson into early Rajkot he hit three consecutive sixes off Anderson, the first a thrillingly inventive slog sweep over deep square classy 101 from 159 balls was a total contrast - an innings that would have pleased Yorkshire and England great Sir Geoffrey Boycott watching may be an Indian Premier League megastar but he began slowly before growing in intent to crash England's bowlers through the off side. England targeted the pads from over the wicket but that angle only aided his strengths as he scored 92 of his runs through the off now has centuries in his first Test and first innings in both Australia and England - the two destinations where all Indian batters are judged most - while no-one from the world's cricketing superpower can match his haul of 1,899 runs after 20 talk before this match was about how India replace the run machine that was Kohli, the defining cricketer of the past decade who stepped away after giving the format 9,230 runs, 30 centuries and everything Jaiswal already has 15 scores of 50 or more to his name, four more than Kohli at the same stage. At this point the great Sachin Tendulkar had only wisest heads are already pondering whether Jaiswal is India's greatest left-hander. Should he continue unchecked, he will keep company with the greatest of them all. While Jaiswal bounded around Headingley in celebrating three figures, India's second century was met with a roaring release of Gill, the player of the tournament at the Under-19 World Cup and an IPL debutant at 18, has been groomed for this role since he was a he timed Josh Tongue through the covers - a shot that epitomised this procession to a first Test century outside of Asia - he took a moment before feelings from all of those days, weeks and years of waiting came bursting may be the perfect India captain for their new Rohit Sharma, Kohli and MS Dhoni before him were captains who began their careers before the IPL's explosion, Gill has grown up alongside it to the point occasions such as these must feel like a hit in the local is a Test match in front of 20,000 in West Yorkshire when you have captained your franchise before 100,000 at the world's biggest sporting stadium?That is not to say Gill's ascension will diminish the Test fought against the strongest tides to promote the longest format during his career and Gill has begun in a similar Thursday he said winning this series would be bigger than anything the IPL could offer. His celebration suggested those words were not merely spoken to elegant cover drive and a ferocious fitness regime are other similarities between Gill and Kohli. Their differences are stark pristine Kohli would never bat with black socks - club players receive fines for less - and a badly matching undershirt as Gill did on Friday, nor would he joke with the media as Gill did 24 hours earlier."I wouldn't be telling you any tips one day before the match," Gill said with an endearing smile when asked to share any advice his predecessors gave before this may not have the aura of Kohli but Gill exudes a softly-spoken his first knock as skipper, Gill's false shot percentage was a mere 8.5% throughout his 175 balls, making this the most serene innings by an Indian in England since 2006. There was a miscalculated call for a run where an Ollie Pope hit would have run out the diving India captain on one but afterwards Gill's pre-match calmness was reflected in the is folly to draw too many conclusions from one day in the understrength bowling attack lacked threat in the Leeds sunshine but Chris Woakes will not be as generous in offering boundary chances Rahul and Jaiswal saw off the new ball but on another day their edges in the opening overs go to is clear, though, that any fears for India after the retirements of Kohli and Rohit were misplaced.A band of IPL rockstars - frontman Jasprit Bumrah is yet to be seen and Rishabh Pant played only a quick cameo - have the chance to go one better than Rohit and Kohli, who both retired without the series win in England they knew it and day one of this series proved it. India's future is already here.
