England's turnaround

At the end of the first day's play, England scored 311/4, with Moeen Ali still batting at 99 and Root scoring a century. Normally a pitch generally plays well for the first 3 days or so, and then begins to deteriorate due to wear and tear, and batting becomes somewhat difficult.

The same is likely to happen in Rajkot, when bowlers will find more life in the pitch after 3 days of play. But at the start of play yesterday morning, the ball did swing a bit and 3 catches were dropped. Cook, however, failed to capitalise as he was given LBW even though he should have asked for a review. Hamid batted well in his debut innings.

Luthfe Ali, On Email