New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) Legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar was in awe of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Shubman Gill for their impressive knocks on the opening day of the second Test against England at Edgbaston that pushed them to 310/5 at stumps.

Under overcast skies at the toss, an unchanged England side had no hesitation in choosing to bowl first. In contrast, India made three changes to their lineup from the Leeds Test and shuffled key positions in search of greater batting depth – a strategy that was tested right from the opening day. Despite a brief evening collapse, Gill anchored the innings with a composed, unbeaten 114, forging a crucial unbroken 99-run stand with Ravindra Jadeja (41*) to steady the ship and take India to stumps without further loss.

However, it was Jaiswal’s fluent knock that set the tone in a morning session of contrasting phases after India lost KL Rahul early. England’s new-ball bowlers, particularly Chris Woakes, extracted movement and extra bounce early on, but managed just one wicket for their efforts. Jaiswal played a knock of 87 and was involved in two crucial 50-plus partnerships with Karun Nair and Gill.

Taking to X Tendulkar wrote, “@ybj_19 set the tone from ball one. He was positive, fearless and smartly aggressive. @ShubmanGill was cool as ever, calm under pressure, solid in defence and in total control. Classy knocks from both. Well played, boys!”

After the end of play, Jaiswal heaped praise on his captain and said it was incredible to see him bat.

“I think he has been amazing the way he has been batting. It’s just incredible to see him bat and as a captain also, he has been amazing and I think he is very clear in his head what he needs to do with the team and we are very confident in what we are going to do,” the opener said.

“We all are enjoying batting, and the idea is for the one who is set to take the game deep. We are all in the same mindset.”

England bowler Chris Woakes also expressed admiration for Gill’s outstanding performance.

“It felt like we were close to getting him lbw where he got a little inside edge,” Woakes said.

“Other than those it felt like he was in control of pretty much everything. Credit to him. He played very well. It is a very good hundred and a big one for his team.”

–IANS

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