 "Gus Atkinson, making his first appearance of the five-match Test series against India, was the pick of the English bowlers on Day 1 at The Oval with figures of 19-7-31-2. Reuters")
1 in 32, or 3.125 per cent – the odds of India losing all five tosses in this series.
In the art of guessing the toss of the coin correctly, England it is fair to say, have been lucky. Perhaps never more so than on Day 1 at The Oval , the greenish tinge to the pitch and the miserable grey skies could not have said bowl first any more clearly if they had been screaming it from the top of their lungs.
Bowl first is exactly what England did and from the score at the close of play – India 204/6 – you might well imagine that they’d enjoyed a good day. In reality they simply managed to extend that luck at the toss for most of the day.
Atkinson back with a bang
Barely able to trouble the word count is what England did well on Day 1, but an unmistakable bright spot was the return of Gus Atkinson. After a dream introduction to Test cricket last summer, featuring bags of wickets and a Test match hundred, injury has ruled Atkinson out of all of this series so far. On Thursday he came roaring back, finishing the day with figures of 2/31 from 19 overs – miserly almost underselling his economy rate of 1.63.
To cap things off he ensured another big slice of English luck was capitalised on – run-glutton Shubman Gill’s decision to set off for a suicidal run ending in ignominy for the Indian captain as Atkinson threw down his stumps with Gill well short of his ground .
However the rest of English day one success owed much more to luck than judgement, England wasteful of the gifts – both meteorological and geological – bestowed upon them by the cricketing gods. Atkinson aside only Chris Woakes bowled with the sort of consistency expected from an international pace attack.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIt is unlikely that Jamie Smith will look back on this day with much fondness, time and time again sent sprawling on the damp Oval turf as his teammates sprayed the ball all over the place – the final count finishing at 16 wides and four byes by the close of play.
Tongue and Overton guilty of waywardness
It is difficult to split the efforts in unpredictability from Josh Tongue and Jamie Overton, both guilty of having incredibly wayward radars. The former though probably takes the prize, his first over included 11 runs conceded in wides after all, doing his best to appear like a Steve Harmison that England had bought cheaply at a dodgy market stall.
To England’s great fortune though there were two moments of magic in-between the dross, Sai Sudharsan and Ravindra Jadeja both victims of near-unplayable deliveries that swung away and took the outside edges of their bats – a reminder of how much trouble England could have had India in had they produced anything like a competent performance with the ball.
Even more profligate and without the figure-flattering pair of wickets was Overton. His selection ahead of bowlers with longer domestic track records – like Matthew Potts and Sam Cook – had already raised a few eyebrows in the build up to this Test, he did nothing to lower them over the course of Day One.
However England’s luck would run out fairly abruptly before the day was done, Woakes appearing to dislocate his shoulder as he dived to prevent a boundary in the outfield. His loss would be huge for England, reducing them to three fast bowlers – and on the evidence of the day leaving them with just one who could be trusted.
The tourists will return tomorrow on 204/6, a more than respectable position given how tilted things were in England’s favour, combine that with England almost certainly losing their most experienced bowler and India might decide that actually the luck was with them all along.