Team India is currently locking horns with England in the first Test of the five-match series at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Indian skipper Virat Kohli lost the toss and was asked to bowl first by the English captain Joe Root on a moist wicket with a cloud cover as well.
Talking about the team combination, Kohli gave a shocker at the toss when he revealed that Cheteshwar Pujara was dropped from the squad despite being a Test specialist. However, in the bowling department, Indian has gone with three pacers (Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammed Shami), a spinner (Ravichandran Ashwin) and an all-rounder (Hardik Pandya).
However, the hosts lost their first wicket in the first hour of play as their premier batsman Alastair Cook failed to read Ashwin well and ended up getting bowled on a gem of a delivery by the veteran spinner. In the 9th over of the innings, Ashwin first set up Cook for a non-turning delivery on the first three balls by varying the length as well.
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Firstly, he bowled around off stump which straightened up followed by another straighter one on the middle stump which cook defended. The third bowl was pitched a bit fuller by Ashwin at off stump, which Alastair drove towards by taking a forward stride.
Now, on the wicket delivery, bowled a foolish good length delivery which drifted into the middle stump and forced Cook to play forward by the ball gripped the surface only to pass the outside edge of the bat only to crash on to the off the stump. It was almost a dream ball for all the off-spinners.
Here is the video of the brilliant dismissal:
https://twitter.com/videos_shots/status/1024615517569658880