Debutant pacer Akash Deep, into his first spell in Test cricket, made a big impression as he sent England batter's stumps cartwheeling on day 1 of the 4th Test in Ranchi on Friday. Akash's brilliant delivery left Crawley bamboozled but the India bowler overstepped before shattering the stumps, and hence, the batter remained not-out. Akash was ecstatic as he saw Crawley's stumps flying but it turned out he had bowled a no-ball. Hence, the celebrations were cut short.
But that was just the start for Akash Deep, who sent the likes of Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope packing in the same over. A few overs later, Deep made up for the Crawley mistake as well, dismissing him in a similar manner, though this time he hit the top of the stumps, sending the bails flying.
Akash Deep made his debut for India after the team management decided to rest Jasprit Bumrah due to a 'workload issue'. Bumrah, who has been India's leading wicket-taker in the series, sat out of the game, paving the way for the talented Akash to earn his maiden Test cap.
As for the match, England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and decided to bat first against Rohit Sharma-led India. Rohit too said that he would've liked to bat first on the pitch, but Akash proved that the opportunity to bowl first wasn't a bad one either.
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (Wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.
England Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes (Wk), Tom Hartley, Ollie Robinson, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.