India vs England, 1st Test: Day 2 at Birmingham

Virat Kohli took a giant stride towards exorcising the ghosts of 2014 with a masterful century as he singlehandedly pulled India out of the woods against England on an eventful second day of the first Test.

Curran used conditions to good effect as he trapped Vijay leg before, got KL Rahul (4) to play a lazy shot and then Dhawan edged one to the slip cordon. Ajinkya Rahane (15) and Dinesh Karthik (0) joined the procession to make it 100 for 5 before Hardik Pandya (22) added 48 with his skipper.

Curran hit the perfect length as first-change bowler and immediately trapped Vijay lbw in the 14th over. Umpire Aleem Dar turned it down, but DRS overturned the decision as England finally got their breakthrough.

Kohli's 149, which will rank amongst one of the finest hundreds by an Indian batsman on English soil, enabled the visitors to reach 274 thereby bringing down the first innings deficit to only 13 runs. England had scored 287 in their first essay.

As Kohli notched up his 22nd Test century, Kohli took out his wedding ring which he wears as a chain and kissed it, a dedication to his wife Anushka Sharma. The skipper had earlier celebrated this manner in the tour of South Africa earlier on in the Test series in January this year. 

At stumps, England were 9 for 1 in their second innings with an overall lead of 22 runs. R Ashwin claimed the crucial wicket of Alastair Cook for a duck. The momentum would surely be with the visitors despite them trailing by 22 runs.