ENG vs IND 3rd Test: Root stands firm as England makes steady progress

By the time the teams reached the Lord’s for the third Test on Thursday morning, the green top had received a bit of trimming. As the sun shone bright and a packed venue cheered for the home team, England captain Ben Stokes made a surprise decision – to bat first.

In sharp contrast to the Bazball philosophy of asking the opposition to bat first, especially at home, England showed an intention to change its plans from the previous two Tests of the series.

However, the challenging conditions demanded an old-school grind. England refrained from its popular template of scoring quickly, and eventually rode on Joe Root’s flawless unbeaten 99 (191b, 9×4) to end the opening day at 251 for four.

Scoring wasn’t easy as England crawled at three runs an over and having lost openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley early on, it was the 109-run stand for the third wicket between Root and Ollie Pope (44, 104b, 4×4) that allowed the host to mount a fightback.

Even though Pope fell soon after tea to Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah cut short Harry Brook’s innings, England ended the final session without any further losses as Root and Stokes added 79 runs.

With Bumrah back to bolster India’s pace attack, replacing Prasidh Krishna, the first hour of play was tricky. With some movement on offer for Bumrah and Akash Deep, the openers looked tentative before Nitish Kumar struck twice, in the space of three deliveries, to remove both.

Root and Pope led England’s recovery as they slowly found their way throughout the session and a half. While Root, after a low-key outing in the previous Test in Birmingham, returned to form, bringing up his fifty, Pope rode his luck to forge a fighting partnership. Even though the run-rate dipped to 2.91 – England’s second-slowest at home in the Bazball era, over an entire season, both the batters avoided further blows.

While the Indian bowlers struggled to find the breakthrough, Rishabh Pant going off the field after a blow to his left index finger, added to its woes. As Pant looked in pain, Dhruv Jurel came on to keep wickets.

As Root and Pope survived and rebuilt the innings, genuine edges fell short adding to the Indians’ frustration. Pope had a reprieve when skipper Gill dropped a catch off Nitish in the 14th over.

With the ball deviating enough off the surface, England’s false shot percentage in the first 15 overs was 38.4% – the highest for the first 15 overs of any Test innings in the country in nearly two decades.

India didn’t really opt for the short-ball tactic too much though there some inconsistent bounce on offer. Even as Bumrah and Akash Deep failed to find the breakthrough, Nitish produced a magical opening over – getting Duckett when he attempted to pull one down the leg-side, and three deliveries later, a peach of an away-seamer to have Crawley caught behind.

England’s scoring rate remained a tad slow throughout, but Root ensured that the team reached a comfortable position at close of play.