WI vs ENG | 1st Test | Day 1: Old guard keeps England afloat after yet another top order failure

England were revived from an ominous start against West Indies once again after the lower middle order turned up to put 268 runs on Day 1 of the first Test match in Antigua.

Wednesday morning in the Caribbean shores marked England’s dawn in Test cricket after their routing in the Ashes series Down Under. The three lions sported a new look team that removed Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed in the opening slot and also chose not to employ the services of greats James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

A couple of boundaries in the opening overs from Zack Crawley and Alex Lees showed promise, but the home team were quick to cut it down, courtesy the brilliance of Kemar Roach. After being hit for a boundary in the first over from Rees, Roach pulled his length back in his returning over, to catch the debutant in front of his wickets. A tight call for the umpire saw the decision go upstairs as the first review of the day, but Rees could not be saved. 

Rees’ wicket paved the way for the West Indians to dominate the first session as they picked up Zack Crawley, Joe Root and Daniel Lawrence inside the first 16 overs of the day. Root’s wicket was impressive in particular and showed the amount of background work that the home team had done on the opposition batters.

The England captain who had sacrificed Indian Premier League to save the country’s Test cricket was troubled in the off stump channel from Kemar Roach. The West Indian’s line and length induced an edge into the slips, but the cordon was not able to hold on to the chance.

In the very next ball, Roach went wide of the stumps and brought one into the right hander. The ball pitched outside off and clipped the top of off stump as Root shouldered his arms.

Barring the change ups, Windies were not afraid to pitch the ball up to the batsmen and they reaped rewards of their fearless persistence.

Down by 4 at 57 runs in the morning session, England were once again pushed to the brink with Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow in the middle. The duo added 67 runs for the 5th wicket and provided England with some much needed stability. Both the players showed their trademark shots and looked set for big individual scores. However, it was not to be as young Jayden Seals bowled a ripper of an inswinger to uproot Stokes’ stumps, bringing a halt to the domination of the visitors.

Post the departure of Stokes, wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes took on the charge and shared a 99-run partnership with Bairstow before getting out. The right hander brought his exquisite drives with him and led the charge in the partnership to bring up the run-rate. Foakes was ruled LBW after Jason Holder pinned him in front of the stumps, but the Jos Buttler replacement had done enough by that time to put England into a strong position. His most important contribution of the day was to release Jonny Bairstow from his patient defensive innings after the downfall and get back to his aggressive nature that can throw the opposition out any day. 

Foakes’ assurance did exactly that and helped Bairstow to accelerate after getting to his 50 in 127 balls. Once Bairstow had reached his stride, there was no stopping the right hander as he brought up rapid runs late in the day alongside Chris Woakes. The partnership brought up 54 runs off 100 balls, with Bairstow reaching his three-figure mark in 190 balls.

England ended their day on 268/6, enough runs on a slow, dry pitch that had very little for the bowlers after the morning session. Kemar Roach was undoubtedly the best bowler on the day, having picked up two wickets with two beautiful deliveries. Barring Roach, Holder and Seals picked up two each as well.

Day 2 will be telling for England as they would look to post big runs and hope for the pitch to break later in the game. They still have ample amount of batting left with Craig Overton and Mark Wood still to come.