Key events
Word to the wise: if you’re near a telly, computer or a phone and can get Sky, Ricky Ponting is about to talk batting.
A question Stokes has to answer this morning: who takes the new sphere? Most likely, he sticks with Woakes and Archer, but I’d not be uninterested to see what he makes of it.
Email! “As some OBO readers may be aware,” begins John Starbuck, “BBC Radio 3 have a playlist each morning made up of listeners’ suggestions. Today, the theme is cricket. Soul Limbo has already been played to start it off but should anyone wish to contribute, essentialclassics@bbc.co.uk is where tosend emails. I’d go for Roy Harper’s ‘When an old cricketer leaves the crease’ or David Rudder’s ‘Rally round the West Indies’.”
Funny you say that. Just this morning, I was thinking that when I cover Afcon and World Cups, I do playlists for the countries whose music I know well – Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa (links available on request). But I don’t know much about Indian tunes, so was thinking it might be fun for those who do to curate an OBO playlist. And in the meantime, here’s our rain offering:
Also going on:
And in other sport – apparently there are some:
Chris Woakes, the pick of England’s bowlers yesterday and a man who stinks of unimpeachable honesty, says he’s hearing Pant is out. I really, really hope not.
Good news, potentially for both teams: it’s overcast in Manchester, so there should be a bit there for both attacks. The pitch played slightly strangely yesterday, docile but occasionally lively. I actually think they got the track almost perfect in the first Test at the new OT, the 2013 Ashes contest: there was something in it for quicks hitting 85ish and above and also for quality spinners, but otherwise it was flat and the best batters made runs.
So far there’s no news on Pant. But he’s not at the ground and the signs do not look positive. Godspeed, old mate.
Preamble
A day of Test cricket is – even when split up into six portions of crucial next hours – a long time. It offers us scope for undulation, fluctuation and domination, a story within a story that nourishes our brain through the long evenings before we go again.
Somehow, almost every time these sides get to it and however things meander and explode, we end up near to where we started: with a close contest that could conceivably go either way.
Yesterday, India had the better of the first session, sensible and doughty batting aided by a supernatural force-field protecting their outside-edges from the ball, however hard they tried to unite the two. Then, in the afternoon, England – led by the exhibition masochism of Ben Stokes – fought back, before the even evening dig left the match beautifully balanced as we bounce into day two.
It feels like much of what’ll happen next is rooted in Rishabh Pant. If he can’t bat, England will feel like they’re almost into the tail, but the problem for India would be a symbolic one too; he is the human embodiment of bravery and hope, so his incapacitation would extract a toll not just practical but mental. They need his batting, but they also need his presence.
England’s attack, meanwhile, should be a day wiser. Bowling at Old Trafford is unlike bowling anywhere else, and Brydon Carse struggled while Jofra Archer, though miserly, is there to be deadly. If, as a unit, the perform similarly today, they will be facing a substantial first-innings total; if they improve, they could be ahead of the game by stumps. Bring on the six portions of crucial next hours!
Play: 11am BST