‘You’ll see England playing aggressively ‘ – Michael Atherton expects visitors to bounce back on Day 2 against India

The Indian batters, particularly Yashasvi Jaiswal stole the show on Day 1 of the second Test against England in Vizag. Jaiswal smashed 179* runs as India posted 336/6 on the opening day. Despite so, former England cricketer Michael Atherton isn’t concerned as he expects the visitors to bounce back with their aggressive batting in the second innings. 

The 55-year-old mentioned that the team would take a lot of confidence from Ollie Pope, who hit 196 runs in the second innings of the first Test in Hyderabad. He added that India would aim to post 400-450 runs in the first innings as England should target bundling them early and take advantage of the surface, which has favoured the batters massively on Day 1.

“While Jaiswal’s there, India will have designs on a score of 400, 450. That’s never a bad first-innings score, but it’s not the kind of one that will frighten England. You always look at conditions and wonder how things will go. It’s certainly less of a troubling pitch than it was in Hyderabad in that first innings. England’s batters, having taken confidence from the way Ollie Pope and the others played (in the first Test), will be pretty confident of getting a score themselves,” Atherton said on Sky Sports. 

“You’ll see England playing aggressively because that’s they’re committed to playing that way and quite differently from the way India play. It’s a good contrast in styles really between India’s top six and England’s,” he added.

Atherton added that if the surface in Hyderabad eventually breaks up, it would happen later in the game and not during England’s batting. He expects the Ben Stokes-led side to take advantage of that and counter India with their aggressive batting in Vizag. Meanwhile, India would expect a long partnership between Jaiswal and Ravichandran Ashwin, and the goal would be to bat as long as possible, as it is expected to break up from Day 3 onwards.

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