Michael Vaughan praises Indian bowlers for playing on their merit, denies pitch assistance

Michael Vaughan came forward and lauded the Indian bowlers for outstanding performance on Day 1 of the fourth and final Test match against England at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. The visitors bottled it completely despite the coin landing in skipper Joe Root's favour on Thursday morning who had no hesitation in batting first.

'High class': Michael Vaughan

Taking to the micro-blogging site, Vaughan wrote that Team India with the ball on Day 1 of the ongoing contest showed why they are so good in these conditions (home wickets). The former English skipper then mentioned that the pitch did very little for 60 overs and the Indian bowlers completely out-skilled as well as out-thought England and termed this performance as 'High Class'. 
At the same time, the cricketer-turned-cricket pundit also called out the English batsmen for a dismal performance by saying that they were very average in their first innings.

As usual, he once again faced flak from the passionate cricket fans while there were a few of them who asked the Englishman whether he has finally learned his lesson. Here are some of the reactions.

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India dominate the proceedings on Day 1

Even though Root had called it right at the toss, his batsmen including himself could not capitalise on their chances as they ended up losing wickets at regular intervals. Apart from star all-rounder Ben Stokes (55), and, Dan Lawrence (46), none of the other batsmen could make much of an impact on what seemed to be a good batting surface as most of them failed to breach the three-figure mark and were eventually bundled out for 205 in the 76th over.

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The Indian spinners did much of the damage with Ashwin, Patel, and, Washington Sundar sharing eight wickets apiece. Axar Patel was once again the pick of the bowlers for the hosts with figures of 4/68 from his 26 overs while 'Ash' finished with 3/47 from his 19.5 overs.

In reply, India have lost the wicket of opener Shubman Gill for a duck after he was caught plumb in front of the wicket by veteran pacer James Anderson in the very first over. Gill's opening partner Rohit Sharma (8*), and, number three Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara (15*) ensured that there were no further hiccups as the hosts finished Day 1 at 24/1. They still have a first-innings deficit of 181 runs.

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