Indian cricket team skipper Rohit Sharma sprung a surprise as he handed the ball to youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal on the final over of Day 1 of the fourth Test match between India and England in Ranchi on Friday. Jaiswal has been a revelation with the bat in the five-match series till now with consecutive double tons against the visitors. However, this was the first time that he bowled in the series and a lot of experts as well as fans were taken aback by his leg-spin bowling. The reason behind Rohit's decision is not clearly known but it would have made legendary India spinner Anil Kumble extremely happy.
Following India's win over England in the third Test, Kumble asked Jaiswal to concentrate on his bowling along with his batting and even advised him to ask Rohit to give him some overs.
"Well done on your batting. But one thing that I have seen which I want you to continue as well is that you have a natural leg spin. Yes, and action. So don't give up on that. Because you never know when that will come in handy. know you've had a back spasm, but when you're working so much on it. Go tell the skipper to give a few overs,"
Meanwhile, England recovered from a morning session collapse to post 302 for 7 on Day 1.
On a day when debutant pacer Akash Deep tormented the visitors by dismissing both the openers -- Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett -- in the morning and returned figures of 3/70 to make a dream debut, former England skipper Root stood firm scoring an unbeaten 106 off 226 balls to halt the charge of the home team bowlers.
At stumps, giving Root company was Ollie Robinson (31 not out).
Earlier, Root and Ben Foakes added 113 runs for the sixth wicket to get England out of trouble after they were left struggling at 112/5 by the 27-year-old Akash Deep.
Making his Test debut in place of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who has been rested, Akash Deep recovered from a no-ball setback to dismiss Ben Duckett (11), Ollie Pope (0) and Zak Crawley (42) and leave England reeling at 57 for 3.
Jonny Bairstow smashed a 35-ball 38 with four boundaries and a six before Ravichandran Ashwin (1/17) trapped him in front.
Skipper Ben Stokes (3) was caught in front of the wicket by Ravindra Jadeja (1/28) as India dominated the morning session.
India are leading the five-Test series 2-1.
(With PTI inputs)