Birmingham Test
Shubman Gill's ton helps India avert another sudden collapse against England
Birmingham/IBNS: India captain Shubman Gill on Wednesday slammed his seventh Test century and second consecutive in the series to help India fight back against England on day one of the second Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
Gill remained unbeaten at 114 off 216 balls as India finished at 310-5 at stumps.
The skipper was joined by allrounder Ravindra Jadeja (unbeaten 41) in the middle when India were staring at another collapse in the series after vice-captain Rishabh Pant (25) and Nitish Reddy (1) were dismissed in a quick succession.
Gill and Jadeja added 99 runs till stumps to rescue the visitors from 211-5 to 310-5 from where India can aim for a big total.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who slammed a hundred in Headingley, missed his second consecutive century in Edgbaston as he was caught behind wicket off England captain Ben Stokes for 87 off 107 balls.
Karun Nair, who was promoted to number three in absence of Sai Sudharsan, went back to the hut scoring 31.
On Wednesday, Gill announced three changes to their side from the last match.
Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar and Akash Deep have been inducted to the team. The team management dropped Sai Sudharsan, Shardul Thakur and rested premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah.
Gill said Bumrah was rested to manage his workload.
"We did get a good break and this is an important match for us. But the third Test being at Lord's, we think there'll be more in that pitch so we'll use him (Bumrah) there," the Indian skipper said on resting Bumrah.
The skipper said Sundar was picked over Kuldeep Yadav to add depth to the lower-order batting.
In both the innings at Headingley, India collapsed soon after their specialist batters were sent back to the hut, failing to capitalise on five hundreds from four batters in the match.
England defeated India by five wickets in the inaugural Test.
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