England Test: Rain stops play on Day 1; Eng 75/0

New game, new venue and new player. The result is same. RP Singh, whose international career was deemed to be over, got a new lease of life on Thursday when he was drafted into the Indian XI for the fourth Test.

The left-arm pacer had one great chance to rekindle his career and boost the sagging morale of the Indian team. But the Uttar Pradesh bowler was, at best, mediocre with his slow medium pace. Bowling at pace of 75 mph, he was definitely not threatening the England openers who marched to 75 for no loss in the truncated first day’s play at the Oval here on Thursday.

Singh repeatedly bowled outside the leg stump raising questions about MS Dhoni’s decision to give him the new ball. Dhoni, surely, has not been at his best when it came to handling the bowlers but he could have avoided some flak if the bowlers had justified his faith in them. Singh was not helping his skipper’s cause.

The moot point of the day was not if Singh deserved to be given the new ball but whether he deserved to be in the playing XI. Munaf Patel has been travelling with the team for the past two months and the team ignores him for a bowler who has not played Test cricket for more than three years, international cricket for close to two years and first class cricket for over six months.

The real point is whether he deserved to be in the squad at all. Unless he comes out with an incisive spell, Dhoni will struggle to justify taking him in place of injured Praveen Kumar.

The story of the short day, however, was not Dhoni and his choice of playing XI but Andrew Strauss and his bravery. The England skipper gave a perfect display of his cricketing statesmanship by choosing to bat first in overcast conditions. Batting first in those conditions needed courage. Strauss showed that in abundance.

In slightly similar conditions at Edgbaston in the third Test, India were reduced to 75 for four by lunch. They were all out for 224 in the first innings.

Strauss, riding high after leading England to 3-0 lead in the series, however backed himself. When other batsmen shudder to bat in those conditions, Strauss and Alastair Cook gave perfect demonstration of the batsmanship. Not once in the 26 overs bowled on the day, did the English openers look troubled.

Strauss finished the day on an unbeaten 38 while Cook remained not out on 34. The play did not resume after the lunch break.

Singh was not the only listless bowler for India. Even S Sreesanth was guilty of waywardness. Ishant Sharma generated good pace but could not trouble the English openers, except on one occasion.

The occasion came in the 15th over when Ishant hit one on Strauss’s helmet. The ball smashed the upper part of the helmet but the England skipper stood upright to face the next ball after changing the helmet. Courage? Strauss showed that in abundance.