India captain Virat Kohli was unhappy with the amount of grass left on the pitch for the opening Test against England after his side had to fight hard to eke out a draw in an intriguing final session yesterday.
 Kohli ensured the honours were shared with the touring side with a defiant 49 after his side, ranked number one in the world, were reduced to 132 for six, chasing an improbable target of 310 for victory.
 “I was quite surprised to see that much grass, to be honest,” the 28-year-old Kohli said. “It should not have been the case.”
 Kohli would have hoped for more assistance for his spinners from the pitch at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, making its debut as a Test centre, given England’s recent struggles on turning tracks in Bangladesh.
 Kohli dented England’s hopes of a 1-0 lead in the five-match series with a fifth-wicket stand of 47 with Ravichandran Ashwin and another crucial partnership of 40 for the seventh wicket with local man Ravindra Jadeja.
 He thought the hard-fought draw would stand his side in good stead in the future. “At least we know how to draw games now. Before that, some people obviously were sceptical about our side knowing how to draw games,” Kohli said. “We won games or we lost games. I spoke with Jadeja out there that it was an opportunity for both of us to improve on another aspect of the game.
 “Maybe in Test cricket in the future, we will have this situation again. Maybe we will have to apply ourselves again and show character... so it was a challenging situation but one that we countered really well, I thought.”
 England’s three spinners took 13 wickets in the match, compared to their Indian counterparts who managed nine, despite having the world’s top-ranked Test bowler in off-spinner Ashwin.
 England captain Alastair Cook said his side’s prospects in India were in doubt after their dismal tour of Bangladesh but the touring side proved themselves by running their hosts close for a draw. Cook and his men landed in India with bruised egos, having lost the second Test in Dhaka inside three days to settle for a 1-1 share of the series against Bangladesh, the world’s ninth-ranked Test team.
 However, they scored four hundreds in the match against world number one Test side India and looked like the only team who could force a win in the contest.
 “We probably proved to everyone else that we can play,” Cook said. “I said at the beginning of the tour that we have got some very talented players.
 “Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, for example, and Joe Root is world class. The hundreds we set up, obviously it was a good toss to win, but the way we played to get 530 showed the character on a different wicket.
 “To score those runs was very pleasing and then we did 160 overs of hard graft to keep India below us. We did a lot of very good things, just couldn’t quite get over the line.”
 England had lost 10 wickets in a session in Dhaka, exposing their frailties against spinners on turning wickets. Cook admitted before the start of the series that his side were the underdogs.
 “As a group after what happened in Bangladesh I keep saying that if we play on those wickets we need to readjust,” added the 31-year-old, who scored his 30th hundred in Tests yesterday.
 “On these wickets, it takes a bit of time to turn and it was pretty flat to start with. I am confident we will score the runs and confident we can bowl well enough to put India under pressure if we hit the same standards.”
 It was Cook’s sixth Test hundred against India and he declared his team’s second innings on 260-3 to set India an improbable target of 310.
 Asked if England could have declared earlier, Cook said he did not want to give their opponents a sniff at victory.
 “Batting just to survive is a lot different than chasing 260, 270... on the same wicket (on which) we were 180 for nought. It (the wicket) wasn’t a minefield. The odd ball did a bit. Maybe a braver person would have set them 240, but I thought it was a fair declaration, especially for the first game of the series.”
Captain Cook heaps praise on Hameed
England batting sensation Haseeb Hameed earned special praise from his captain after scoring the highest runs by a teenager in England history during the first Test against India. The 19-year-old Hameed smashed 82 off 177 balls to record the highest Test score by a teenager for England, beating Jack Crawford’s 74 in Cape Town in 1906.
 The youngster hit seven fours and a six during his 235-minute stay at the wicket and also shared 180 runs for the opening stand with skipper Cook who made 130. Their stand saw England take control of the game.
 “He’s an unbelievable player. Pushing me closer to retirement! He is only 19 years old and he outscored me,” Cook said. “He’s a find for the game. We said before the game we had no doubt he could play. He’s certainly a good player.”
 Rival captain Virat Kohli also could not help but applaud Hameed on a confident debut. “He looks like a guy who has a strong character. He has a lot of belief in his game, as we saw (when he was) taking on the spinners with the field up. It’s pretty exciting to see such a young guy come in to India and show character,” Kohli said.
 Hameed, watched by his Indian-born father and family from the stands, had made a stylish 31 in the first innings. He has been nicknamed ‘Baby Boycott’ for his unflappable batting style after a prolific run in domestic matches back home.
 Hameed’s remarkable debut against India also meant England may have found a long-term partner for Cook. Cook has had nine different partners since the retirement of Andrew Strauss four years ago.