Ben Stokes bursts into laughter after Rishabh Pant belts him down the ground for four off his second ball

Ben Stokes just makes things happen. When India just lost the wicket of KL Rahul after a brilliant 91-run opening stand, he got rid of debutant Sai Sudharsan for a duck with an unusual leg-side trap. When Yashavi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill threatened to bat England out of the Test, he produced an absolute peach of a delivery out of nowhere to beat the defence of Jaiswal batting on 101. But even he has his match and that is Rishabh Pant. Rishabh Pant charges down the track to hit Ben Stokes

India's newly-crowned vice-captain walked into the middle after Jaiswal fell for a brilliant 101. At 221 for 3, they were in a solid position, but Stokes was in the middle of a good spell; any leeway could hand England a footing. Pant's first ball was a straight bat defence. In the next ball, he charged down the track and belted Stokes over his head for a boundary.

No pacer likes to be charged down the track and get hit in that manner, but Stokes, as unique as he is as a cricketer, was not angry or distraught by any means. In fact, he had a whole hearty laugh, almost as if he enjoyed it to a great extent.

The England captain even took a couple of steps towards Pant and exchanged a couple of friendly words. Notably, Stokes has been an open admirer of Pant. He even went on to state that Pant plays Bazball-style cricket in the Indian unit.

Stokes continued to bowl a testing spell to Pant, who did well not to get sucked into any rash shots. Stkes kept Pant honest by varying his lengths and pace. he even tried a couple of lethal bouncers and a slower one that almost hit trapped Pant in front of the stumps but the Indian keeper-batter survived.

Pant's patient batting did not allow England to have any entry into the Test match as India continued to dominate proceedings. Captain Shubman Gill hit a sparkling century to become the fourth India captain after Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, and Virat Kohli to hit a century on their captaincy debut. This was Gill's sixth Test century and his first one in a SENA country.

Gill and Pant brought up their century partnership as Pant nudged towards a half-century while India went past 300.

The foundation was laid by a solid opening partnership between Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. India did lose Rahul (42) and debutant Sai Sudharsan (0) in quick succession but Gill and Jaiswal's 129-run partnership for the third wicket really put India in the driver's seat.

Playing his first Test in England, Jaiswal hit a sublime century. It took a magical delivery from Stokes to stop him.

Click here to read article