A measured, low-key session left India 153 for 3 at lunch, 159 runs to the good, with KL Rahul’s unbeaten 72 anchoring the fourth morning of the first Test. England’s seamers asked plenty of questions, but only Shubman Gill’s outside edge provided an answer as the pitch, now four days old, offered variable bounce and just enough lateral movement to keep batters honest.
Gill’s dismissal arrived in Brydon Carse’s opening burst from the Kirkstall Lane End. The right-arm quick kissed the surface on a good length, the ball jagged in just enough, and Gill could only drag it on for 8. “I just tried to hit the top of off and let the deck do the work,” Carse told Sky Sports, summing up England’s plan in a sentence.
That early success proved the sole breakthrough, though not through lack of effort. Josh Tongue beat Rahul a handful of times, Ben Stokes thudded one into the opener’s top hand, and Chris Woakes persuaded the ball to nibble both ways under slate-grey skies. Yet Rahul, attentive to each threat, left well outside off, drove only on length he trusted, and moved to his 26th Test fifty with a clipped two through mid-wicket.
“It’s not a free-scoring surface, so patience is key,” Rahul noted after play yesterday, and he practised what he preached this morning. One loose steer behind point on 55 flew straight to Harry Brook at gully, but the chance slipped out: England’s sixth drop of the match, and the first of what could be a costly day.
At the other end Rishabh Pant lived a familiar high-wire existence. Second ball he danced at Woakes and sliced over the cordon—three slips and a gully stationed there for precisely that shot. Later he swung across the line at Carse, sending the ball ballooning between fine leg and a retreating Joe Root from second slip, both men converging but neither laying a hand on it. “That’s just the way I bat,” Pant shrugged earlier in the series, and this innings did little to contradict him.
An lbw appeal moments later against Pant required DRS. Paul Reiffel’s not-out call was upheld, Ultra-Edge confirming a faint inside contact. Warned, Pant dialled back, collecting a measured 31* from 46 balls by the interval. His partnership with Rahul is worth 61 and counting.
England will feel one more wicket keeps the target realistic, particularly with the prospect of a wearing surface and the new ball 21 overs away. India, meanwhile, hold the scoreboard advantage and, with Ravindra Jadeja still in the shed, the chance to push beyond 250. As former England captain Michael Atherton observed on television, “Another hour of Rahul and Pant, and this chase could move from tricky to taxing.”
Plenty remains in the balance, yet the morning’s theme was control—Rahul’s command of his off-stump, England’s disciplined lengths, and a Test that continues to build without melodrama.
