Day eight: the action does the talking

Just when it looked like it would be a day that would belong to Steve Smith, India fought back hard. With the odd bit of brilliance from Ravi Jadeja honours were in the balance.

Smith certainly enjoys batting against India, the first two tests feeling like a blip Smith added to his previous seven centuries against his current opponents.

Australia should have passed 400 with ease. Although as we have seen with this current incarnation of Australia that is not how they roll. Matthew Wade may find himself the fall guy in this innings as rashly charged Jadeja. Wade was scoring quickly and while it made some sense to keep going the new ball was in sight. His dismissal changed the narrative, and India suddenly seized their chance.

Even the best bowling attack in the world needs their batsmen to pile on the runs. There are only so many times you can bowl your team out of trouble. Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma helped India to a decent start, and after both were back in the pavilion with the score on 85, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane dropped anchor.

India ended the day on 96 for 2, 242 runs behind. It sets up day three to be another cracker of a day.

Ireland lose despite Stirling display

Ireland started their tour of UAE today. It didn’t end well as the Irish fell to a six-wicket defeat to their Abu Dhabi hosts.

Paul Stirling with 131 and Andy Balbirnie 53 scored the baulk of Ireland’s runs, but they were outdone by Chundangapoyil Rizwan 109 and Muhammad Usman 102 not out as UAE reached their target of 270 with an over to spare.

It is not an ideal start from Ireland with a potentially more formidable task in Afghanistan to come after their current four-match series. It is good to see the associate nations take on full ICC members and win in terms of the world game. It was what Ireland were doing until recently and their elevation in status.

England start to warm-up

England’s players took to the field for the first time on their tour of Sri Lanka in an intra-squad game. What is evident is that some players have some work to do.

A player who performed well with the bat was Joe Root with 74 not out. Dan Lawerence and Zak Crawley also picked up useful runs.

Ollie Robinson who is looking to make his test debut returned figures of 2 for 15. With an exhaustive number of tests ahead, Robinson’s best chance of starting is now.