Prolific centuries from senior Indian batsmen Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara have put India in a commanding position on Day One of the second Test against England being played at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, here on Thursday.
After suffering some early blows, the host ended at 317/4, thanks to 14th Test century of Kohli (151*) and ninth one of Pujara (119).
The duo stitched together a 226-run stand to propel India to a big first innings score.
Electing to bat first on a rank-turner, the Indian team did not have the best of the starts as they lost KL Rahul, who was making a return after being injured, in the very second over. He was caught on slips off the bowling of Stuart Broad at his individual score of not.
Murali Vijay (20) also played some lusty cover drives before getting dismissed to a short ball off James Anderson, who was making a comeback to Test cricket since last August.
From there on, both Kohli and Pujara just tore apart the England bowling, not giving any chance to the visitors to make a comeback in the game. Pujara, who notched his third consecutive Test century, was quite aggressive as he struck 12 boundaries and two sixes during the course of his innings.
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The wicket of Pujara and then of Ajinkya Rahane (23) late in the day, however, has given this scorecard a less ominous ring from England's point of view and the Alastair Cook-led side would like to ensure that they get the hosts all out as early as possible so that they can bat soon and make the most of these conditions as long as they last.
At Stumps of Day One, Kohli was there with Ravichandran Ashwin who was unbeaten 1. From India's point of view, they would like to make a big first innings score so that they don't have to bat again.