The dismissal of Joe Root leaves things relatively even at The Oval on day one
Chris Woakes: “A relatively good day still, to win the toss and bowl them out for 190 is job done . But to lose three tonight, including Joe, puts things in the balance. Thakur got away from us a little bit but sometimes you have to say fair play. We’d have taken 190 at the start of the day.
I was a little bit nervous, haven’t done that for a while, nice to be back out there, my first over calmed me down, came out quite nice. I was always a bit unsure how it was going to got but I snapped into a nice rhythm early on. I’m sure I’ll hurt in the mornig but I’m glad for the pains.”
How to sum that up? A reckless Indian batting performance, rescued by fifties from Virat Kohli and Shardul Thakur, who indulged in some enjoyable humpty. Good bowling from England all round, especially from Chris Woakes. England had a plonker of a start, with both Hameed and Burns falling to shots they wouldn’t have played in their dreams, and Root done by a beauty, pitched full and nipping in. Thirteen wickets in the day – in the words of Michael Vaughan, “not a great day for Test match batting.” But, so much fun.