India had a mixed outing on the opening day of the fourth Test. In what could have been a brilliant day, turned out to be quite the opposite.
Rishabh Pant was injured and his participation in the fourth Test is under serious doubt. Yashasvi Jaiswal (58) and KL Rahul (46) batted brilliantly but fell to poor shots after a brief lapse in concentration. Sai Sudharshan scored 61 but fell at a time when it looked like a big score was loading. Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar was concerned about the way Jaiswal and Rahul was out.
“When you look at the overall pie, you can see how wonderfully this Test match is going. There’s a promise of another intriguing test match. You saw the first session, an important one, go to India and then England, making that second session their own. We saw two set batters get out – KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal. You wonder. I don’t know whether I’m reading too much into it, whether it’s mental fatigue from the long series. These are guys who’ve got runs and somebody, you know. These aren’t batters who will get a 50 and let the advantage go. They didn’t quite dig in and get a big 100. Has that got something to do with, I thought, you know, mental stamina, the reserves that you need? They have played so well until now to drop another kind of level of, you know, commitment and grind, whether they have it in there,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on Jio Hotstar.
Meanwhile, Former England skipper Nasser Hussain hailed the seasoned Indian opener KL Rahul following his strong run with the bat in the ongoing five-match series of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 against the Three Lions. Hussain compared the right-hand batter’s batting approach in this series to England openers.
In the first innings of the Manchester Test, the 33-year-old player scored 46 runs off 98 balls which came with the help of four boundaries.
“He has wonderful technique. He plays almost like an English opening batter, and it is a real valuable asset for this Indian side to have,” Hussain told Sky Sports.
During the first day of the fourth Test of the series at Old Trafford on Wednesday, Rahul completed 1000 Test runs in England, becoming only the fifth Indian to do so after legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar, and Virat Kohli.
With 1575 runs, Tendulkar is in first place, followed by Dravid (1376), Gavaskar (1152), and Kohli (1096). Now, Rahul joins this elite list, marking another solid milestone in his career.
In 12 Tests in England, he has made four centuries and two fifties. His best score in England is 149.
Indian batters have earned praise from former cricketers.
India head coach Ravi Shastri was full of praise for the left-hand batter Yashasvi Jaiswal who has scored 36 runs in the first session of the fourth Test.
“This tour of England will make Jaiswal twice the player he is. He was prepared to guts it out this morning after his failures at Lord’s – he gave respect to the conditions and the new ball. Then he started playing positive shots around half an hour before lunch – the uppercut, the slash over the slips,” Shastri noted.