India vs England: Shubman Gill marks his turf on Day 1 at Edgbaston

India's captain Shubman Gill celebrates after scoring a century (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)

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Birmingham: With 30 minutes remaining on the first day of the second Test, India captain Shubman Gill unleashed two cracking sweep shots behind square off Joe Root , bringing up his second century of the series in his third innings as India’s Test captain. He did his customary celebration, taking off the helmet and bowing towards the crowd and dressing room.It was a significant moment for this young Indian team. At stumps, Gill was undefeated and batting on 114 in an innings that again underlined his credentials as a batting powerhouse at No. 4. With an authoritative presence and remarkable restraint, Gill played one of the most defining knocks of his career.Incidentally, it was here at Edgbaston in 2018 that Virat Kohli cemented his legacy as a Test great with a superlative hundred when the rest of the batting looked out of breath.By stumps, Gill had safely taken India to 310/5 in the company of Ravindra Jadeja — batting on 41 — from a rather delicate position of 211/5. The efforts would have eased the nerves in the dressing room after the team was in danger of staring at their third successive collapse in this series, after Rishabh Pant holed out to deep long-on off Shoaib Bashir for a 42-ball 25 and Nitish Reddy shouldered arms to Chris Woakes’ incoming delivery.The other notable contributor was Yashasvi Jaiswal , whose fluent 87 set the tone and helped erase memories of his dropped catches in the first Test in Leeds.Minutes before the toss, it was cloudy, chilly and windy here on Wednesday. Traditionally, these are conditions apt for bowling first in England, although the pitch here was expected to offer very little to the seamers. England captain Ben Stokes elected to field first when the sun broke out at the time of toss, but for once, he was not expecting his bowlers to run through India’s top order.Instead, Stokes was laying a trap on a flat deck on a perfect batting day. If the young and promising Indian top order thought playing all 15 sessions of a Test at Headingley was tough cricket, Stokes and his bowling attack was about to put them through a day of attritional cricket.Gill responded with immaculate defence, his trademark punchy shots to the boundary and exemplary temperament to thwart England’s efforts. Flamboyance took a backseat as Gill fought it out in the middle.It was credit to Gill and Jadeja’s composure that India remained in the game and now can even hope to claim dominance when they resume on Day Two. Not only did they fend off a disciplined English attack which came hard at them at the fag end of the day, they had to shut out a vociferous and partisan Edgbaston crowd as well.India opted to go in with three utility allrounders in Reddy, Jadeja and Washington Sundar. It was the kind of selection that didn’t leave the established batters much room to fail. Gill’s exemplary application at the crease, coupled with his aesthetic stroke-making, won India an important battle on the first day.Jaiswal, meanwhile, made a remarkable comeback after a deflating fielding performance in Leeds. His knock was a departure from the rest of the pack, one that India are getting used to at the top of the order. Stokes’ celebratory sprint after he got Jaiswal to edge a short and wide delivery to the wicketkeeper suggested how much India’s opener was hurting England’s plans.

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