Weather warning for Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant: Clouds headed to Leeds, India's bowlers will be happy
After a mostly sunny first session, clouds are likely to make their way towards Headingley on Day 2 of the India-England opening Test. Cloud cover, rain stoppages and moisture in the air will change the conditions in the game that saw draining heat on the first day. The England pacers who had toiled without much success might finally see the weather smiling on them. Around lunch, the Indians are expected to get the first feel of the English conditions, gloomy weather and the ball darting around in the air.
The weather forecast says it's likely to worsen over the weekend, and in which case it will be really helpful for India's bowlers. In case that situation eventuates, then losing the toss was a good stroke of luck for India and they can pile on the pressure on England's batsmen.
At the post match press conference on Friday, centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal had said that they would want to play as long as possible and pile up a big first innings total. In case, the weather does follow the forecast, batting wouldn't be as easy as it was on the first day. At stumps on the opening day India were 359 for three. Shubman Gill (127) and Rishabh Pant (65) remained unbeaten.
The top three England bowlers – Chris Woakes, Brydon Crase, Josh Tongue – went for close to 4.5 runs per over. Ben Stokes was sharp that he just got the wicket of debutant Sai Sudharsan on a ball drifting down the leg side.
The ease with which the overnight batsmen Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant scored runs against the deflated England bowlers in the final session, the Headingley Test seemed to be shaping into a run-marathon. On Day 2 that can change.
With England's leading bowler Chris Woakes reputed to be more than a handful once the ball starts to move in the air and the new ball due, Shubman and Pant will have to tighten their game. The high pace at which Woakes gets the ball to move, they will have to be more cautious. Shubman has shown that he can do so. Pant also has the tenacity to see off the storm. Though, his audacious strokes give the impression that he has a slam bang approach to Test match batting but that is not the case. Even on the first day during his innings of 65, there were attempts at the lap shot and dancing down the track lofted shot over the bowler's head but there was a phase when he put his head down and negated the England attack.
The challenge of playing in England is to adapt to the changing conditions. The second day will see if the Indians have it in them to adapt to the weather.
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