Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma stunned England with attacking cricket, claims Ben Duckett

England opener Ben Duckett admitted that they weren’t expecting Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal to come out all guns blazing. He said that the duo deserve all the credit for the way they played.

After India bundled out England for just 246 runs, the opening do of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma gave a brutal start to the team. They surprised many with their attacking approach and made sure that they put the opposition under pressure right from the start.

Yashasvi Jaiswal in particular took attack to the bowlers and smashed the bowlers for sixes and fours and played a stellar innings. The young opener targeted debutant Tom Hartley and made his international debut a bizarre one.

Skipper Rohit Sharma too played a crucial innings at the top as he looked solid and supported his partner well. The Indian captain played some gorgeous shots but couldn’t convert the start he got as he perished while trying to attack the bowlers.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma added 80 runs for the opening partnership inside 13 overs and approached the game like T20I. While the captain perished after scoring 24 runs, Jaiswal brought up his fifty in just 47 balls that surprised the opposition.

Ben Duckett while talking about the conditions lauded the positive approach of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma. He added that they didn’t think batters to play this way. Speaking to talkSPORT, he explained:

“It’s spinning quite a lot on day one. We could have easily had three or four [wickets] there tonight and it could have been very different. The way they played at the top was quite positive, and that’s fair play to them. I don’t think we necessarily thought they were going to come out and play like that, but Stokesy got us to what we think was an above-par score.”

Ben Duckett praised skipper Ben Stokes for his half-century and said that he did a great job to take them to 246. He hailed the positive approach of the Indian batters and added that conditions were tough. He explained:

“It was quite a good day. I thought we were pretty happy there, getting bowled out for what we were. I thought Stokesy was superb. We found it pretty tricky and I think, to be honest, they played well and really positively tonight. It’s tough work against that attack, and I thought we grafted really well today… when the ball is spinning like that on day one, it can be quite tough.”

You have to pay credit to them – Ben Duckett on Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma

Ben Duckett further pointed out that Indian players don’t play attacking cricket usually. He believes that they did so because they believed the pitch would get worse. Speaking to reporters, he explained:

“You have to pay credit to them: they played really well tonight and were very attacking, which is positive. They don’t always go about it like that, so to go about it that way shows that they probably think that pitch is going to get quite a bit worse.”

At stumps on Day 1, India was 119/1 and are 127 runs behind England’s score. Yashasvi Jaiswal is batting at an unbeaten 76 runs whereas Shubman Gill was unbeaten at 14.