England is touring in India to play 5 Tests and the series has been quite competitive. England shocked India by winning the first one at Hyderabad by coming from back in their second innings. India won the second one at Vizag and third one at Rajkot. Hence, Ranchi Test has become important for both the teams. India wants to win the series 4-1 while England wants to win the series by winning last two.
Ranchi pitch is believed to help bowlers and be conducive to spinners. Hence, England won the toss and elected to field first. Zak Crawley(42) rode his luck against swinging ball but Ben Duckett(11) and Ollie Pope(0) got out to impressive debutant Akash Deep. He also sent back Zak Crawley by the end of his spell. England have been reduced to 57/3 in 12 overs.
Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow(38) salvaged situation to an extent but Bairstow being hyper aggressive, he got out to Ravichandran Ashwin. Ben Stokes(3) also fell early. Root and Ben Foakes started absorbing all the pressure and re-built the innings. They both have been able to put up a partnership of 113 runs for the 6th wicket.
Ben Foakes(47), unfortunately could not score his half century. But Joe Root could score his 31st century by the end of the day. Ollie Robinson has kept him company in the last hour. England ended the first day by scoring 302/7 in their allotted 90 overs. Akash Deep made a great impression with his performance for India.