England made two very important breakthroughs and reduced India to 72 for 2 within the rain-affected opening session on day 1 of the fifth Test at The Oval on Thursday.
With Ollie Pope captaining England within the match, the house workforce struck early, dismissing opener Yashasvi Jaiswal for 2, who was trapped LBW in entrance of the wicket by pacer Gus Atkinson.
Pace bowler Chris Woakes then reduced India to 38 for 2 by cleansing up KL Rahul’s (14 off 40 balls) stumps.
Sai Sudharsan and skipper Shubman Gill steadied the innings on an overcast day by scoring an unbeaten 25 and 15 respectively and stitching an unbroken 34-run stand for the third wicket earlier than heavy rain, which got here a couple of minutes earlier than lunch, despatched the gamers scurrying back to the dressing room.
Earlier, trailing 1-2 within the five-match collection, India made 4 adjustments to their taking part in XI, bringing in Dhruv Jurel, (*72*) Nair, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna rather than injured Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, Anshul Kamboj and Jasprit Bumrah.
Brief Scores: India 72 for 2 in 23 overs (Sai Sudharsan 25 batting, Shubman Gill 15 batting; Chris Woakes 1/28).
