Shardul Thakur’s gritty innings, alongside a limping Rishabh Pant, brought some life into a sluggish bowler's first session on the second day of the Fourth Test at Manchester. India managed 300 despite losing a couple of wickets. Thakur’s innings ended at 41, and though Pant could not sprint, he was able to aid Washington Sundar in solid defense against the English bowlers. A brief rainy spell in the session resulted in an early lunch, during which India was at 321 for 6. The session was quite low scoring in nature, India scoring 57 runs on 23 overs of play. With the second new ball, Jofra Archer found the outside edge of Ravindra Jadeja and Thakur’s bat in the second over of the day. Both edges, however, dropped short of the slip cordon. Though, the bowler Thakur was able to nick the left hander and Harry Brook at second slip made a decent catch. A short four of an inside edge to Chris Woakes brought Thakur some runs as did a timeous short ball which was unrestricted. So, the Indian innings continued.Washington got hit a couple of times on the outside off line and took 19 balls to get off the mark. His first four was a streaky boundary to third-man off Archer. With that India moved on to 300+. In Ben Stokes' over, Thakur was reviewed for caught behind and it was clear the ball had come off his shoulder. Right after that, Thakur hit India’s fifth four with a cover drive as they were on a stable pace even after losing Jadeja during the first hour.The pacers kept looking for help into the second hour and the attempts at scoring continued, but the sixth wicket duo fought through until Thakur went for a drive off Stokes and edged it to gully, which concluded a 48-run partnership. And then, emerging onto the field to a standing ovation was Pant who had retired hurt on Day 1 after a hit on his right foot which later came out to be a fracture. He managed a run after attempting a cut off Stokes but was struggling to access the ball during his attempts to make runs. Pant and Sundar scored 7 runs off 20 balls in the session which was interrupted by rain. Scores at a glimpse: India 321/6 (Sai Sudharsan 61, Yashasvi Jaiswal 58, KL Rahul 46, Shardul Thakur 41; Ben Stokes 3-55) vs England.
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