In the warm-up match before the Edgbaston Test, 21-year-old young Roman Walker of England got the Indian giants chewed on his nose. Roman showed the way to the pavilion for 5 batsmen of the Indian team by giving just 24 runs in 11 overs. It should be good to Shrikar Bharat who saved the sinking ship of India. It is impossible for Indian wicket-keeper batsman Srikar Bharat to play in a Test match with Rishabh Pant. He will sit on the bench, but he has shown that the team management can trust him. It would not be wrong to say that if Srikar was not Bharat, the Indian team could have piled up under 200.
Wicket-keeper batsman Srikar Bharat scored an unbeaten half-century as India scored 246 for 8 in 60.2 overs on the rain-hit first day of the warm-up match against Leicestershire. Due to rain and bad weather, 19.4 overs could not be played in the day. When the day’s play was called off early due to rain, Sreekar Bharat was on 70 while Mohammed Shami was on 18.
Bharat has hit 8 fours and a six in his 111-ball innings. However, the collapse of the top order is a matter of concern for India. The team had lost five wickets for 81 runs. Indian captain Rohit Sharma (25) and Virat Kohli (33), who were battling poor form during the Indian Premier League (IPL), again disappointed. Both these star batsmen failed to play big innings despite staying at the crease.
Leicestershire’s young fast bowler Roman Walker troubled the Indian batsmen a lot. He was well supported by Will Davis. Davis took 2 wickets. To give all players a chance to practice, India’s Test specialist batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant and pacer Jasprit Bumrah and the famous Krishna are playing for Leicestershire.
Earlier, Rohit won the toss and decided to bat. Rohit and Shubman Gill (21 off 28 balls) opened the innings. Gill looked in good touch but Davies got him caught by wicketkeeper Pant to give Leicestershire their first breakthrough in the 10th over at 35.
Gill hit four fours in his innings. Walker then showed his mettle. The fast bowler sent Rohit and Hanuma Vihari (03) to the pavilion in their successive overs. Krishna made India’s score 55 for four in the 21st over by getting Shreyas Iyer caught by Pant without opening the account.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (13), who was ruled out of the final stage of the IPL due to injury, became Walker’s third victim. Kohli and Bharat handled the innings with a 57-run stand for the sixth wicket, but Walker struck the former India captain lbw and dealt a sixth blow to India.
Kohli hit four fours and a six in his 69-ball innings. Walker got the fifth wicket to take Shardul Thakur (06) leg before which took Team India’s score to 148 for seven. Bharat then shared a 66-run partnership for the 8th wicket with Umesh Yadav (23) to take the team’s score past 200 runs.
Bharat completed his half-century in 93 balls with two runs at absinthe second. Davis broke the partnership by dismissing Umesh. Umesh hit four fours in his innings of 32 balls. After this, Bharat and Shami did not let India get any more shocks till the stumps.
In the meantime, Shami also hit sixes and fours off consecutive balls of Davis. Last year, the fifth and final Test (Manchester Test) against England was canceled due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in the Indian team, to be played from July 1.