BIRMINGHAM: India suffered early blows in their reply to England’s modest first innings total with English left armer Sam Curran pegging them back to 76 for three at lunch on the second day of the first test match.
After getting off to a decent start with the Indian openers chalking up a half century partnership, the visitors were rocked by three swift strikes by the 20-year-old swing bowler who is playing in his only second test match.
The opening duo of Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan got the visitors off to a good start with Dhawan looking the more dangerous of the two despite some good bowling by Stuart Broad and James Anderson.
But the introduction of Curran turned the tables in favor of the hosts as he dismissed India’s top three batsmen in the space of nine runs.
Dhawan scored 26 off 46 deliveries peppered with some fluent strokes while Vijay made 20. KL Rahul made only four.
Earlier, England quickly folded up for 287 in their first innings after a dramatic collapse in the final session of the first day.
The hosts, playing their 1000th test match, had lost six wickets for 67 runs as they limped to the close on 285 for nine on Wednesday.
Skipper Joe Root had top scored with a fluent 80 but his run out from a brilliant throw by Virat Kohli sparked their demise.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who ended the day with four wickets, inflicting the bulk of the damage for the visitors.
England won the one-day international series between the teams 2-1 and lost the Twenty 20 competition by the same margin earlier this month.
