India take full advantage of England’s generous nature on Republic Day

Photograph: Mahesh Kumar A/AP

This is the first time since 1973 that India’s Republic Day has fallen during an England Test. As in 2024, the 1973 match started the previous day, but unlike this year it was paused to allow the citizens of Kanpur to celebrate without distraction. “Republic Day failed to bring any joy to England’s players,” the Guardian reported 51 years ago. “Most of them sat in their hotel and listened to the sounds of merrymaking on the streets outside.” This one didn’t bring England much joy either, the main difference being that their players were less hiding from the sounds of merrymaking than causing them.

It is not a holiday that is generally marked by the exchanging of gifts though that is what happened in Hyderabad, with England by a margin the more generous. A poor delivery dispatched to the boundary, a poor shot bringing a wicket, an opportunity to take another missed and several dot balls in between: the first over pretty much told the story of the day. The last told a tale of the two sides’ shifted moods, ending as it did with the final three deliveries, from Tom Hartley, being hit for four, six and four by Axar Patel, and with India’s lead at precisely 175.

As the players left the field in front of a crowd which, like England’s chances, had long since drained away (Republic Day allowed large parties of schoolchildren to come to the ground but didn’t explain why, in a city of 11 million, they were required to make up the numbers on a public holiday) the contrast between the teams’ efforts with the bat was clear: with the exception of Ravichandran Ashwin, run out after a mix-up with Ravindra Jadeja in the most generous gift of them all, there was just one Indian batter – their captain, Rohit Sharma – who faced fewer than 60 deliveries, just as on the opening day only one Englishman – their captain, Ben Stokes – had faced more. England had only three partnerships that contributed more than 40 runs; India only two that contributed fewer (Ashwin and Jadeja being one; the other, between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill at the start of the second day, managed 36).

It was Rahul who might have joined Yashasvi Jaiswal in falling in the day’s first over. Later, he described the benefit of his new position in the middle order, having spent the great majority of his Test career as an opener, as getting “a bit more time in the dressing room, a bit more time to put your feet up and see what conditions are like, what the bowlers are doing, what their plans are, how the pitch is behaving”. He got only four deliveries to do so on Friday morning, which perhaps explains his early scare, though for him to have gone would have required Ben Foakes to catch the ball and the umpire Chris Gaffaney to notice he had nicked it, neither of which happened. So he settled into his work, taking another 15 deliveries before attempting his first shot of any aggression. Whereupon he drove Tom Hartley down the ground for successive fours, and was away.

There was a moment, after Gill had puzzlingly picked out a fielder to leave India on 159 for three, when England scented an opportunity, rushing Mark Wood into the attack to target the perceived weakness of Shreyas Iyer, the new batter, against short balls. But Rahul was on strike and he scored 13 off the following over, including a beautifully timed back-foot punch for four, to drain England’s optimism.

India’s has so far been an innings of three distinct parts, each defined by its dominant batter. While Jaiswal was at the crease they scored at 5.16 an over, while Rahul was there they scored at 4.02, and after he puzzlingly picked out a fielder (this was a theme) having scored 86 and Ravindra Jadeja set about patiently taking the game out of England’s reach, they went at 2.95.

Jadeja had scored 34 off 38 when Rahul went and added 47 off 117 thereafter, a shift in pace with which, like everything else he had to deal with, he seemed entirely comfortable. He and Patel batted with great poise and, until the final three-ball burst, absolutely no hurry, and will be looking forward to having even more fun, this time with the ball, at some point on Saturday. The last delivery of the day was delayed while the ball was fetched from the ditch into which Patel had just dumped it; England’s hopes are down there still.