Joe Root served as the foundation for England’s innings on a day when the batsmen faced rigorous challenges throughout. Root, who surpassed 3000 Test runs against India, adopted a traditional method of perseverance and ended the first day at Lord’s with a score of 99*.
Nitish Kumar Reddy gets the early blows
England’s choice to bat first in the third Test turned out to be quite challenging. This decision to bat was unusual for England at home in recent times; however, on a green pitch that had been slightly trimmed on the first morning, England demonstrated a desire to alter their strategy from the previous two Tests of the series. Nevertheless, the conditions were far from favorable for the aggressive scoring approach that has become synonymous with them, necessitating a great deal of patience and resilience while enduring some setbacks along the way.
For a significant portion of his innings, Root was accompanied by Ollie Pope as they navigated a partnership worth 109 runs off 211 balls, which aided England in recovering after the loss of a couple of early wickets. India’s bowling attack had performed admirably early in the day, applying pressure on the home side.
With the pace attack strengthened by the return of Jasprit Bumrah, replacing Prasidh Krishna, the openers faced a variety of challenges. Both Bumrah and his new-ball partner Akash Deep found some movement in the air. Additionally, there was uneven bounce at times that provided them with some assistance. Genuine edges fell short of the wicketkeeper or the slip cordon throughout the first hour. As a result, the number of plays and misses increased, with the ball exhibiting sufficient deviation off the pitch.
Jasprit Bumrah joins the party with a crucial wicket
The false shot percentage during the initial 15 overs was recorded at 38.4% – marking the highest for any Test innings in England within that timeframe since 2006. Consequently, England’s scoring pace diminished, with boundaries not being scored as frequently as they have become customary in the Bazball era. Although both Akash and Bumrah were unfortunate not to have claimed a wicket, Nitish Reddy found himself on the opposite end of that spectrum. In his opening over, he had Ben Duckett gloving a pull down the leg side. A few deliveries later, he delivered a remarkable away-seamer that resulted in Zak Crawley nicking behind. In the interim, Reddy could have secured another wicket had Shubman Gill managed to hold onto a challenging low catch at gully.
However, Pope, alongside a proactive Root, managed to navigate through that challenging phase with a resilient partnership. The scoring rate had slowed to a crawl, and there was a period where no runs were scored for over four consecutive overs. The run-rate of 2.91 also represented England’s second-slowest at home during the Bazball era across a full season. Nevertheless, Root went on to achieve his 103rd score of fifty or more, with Pope also approaching the milestone by the time of Tea. Yet, immediately following the break, Pope was caught behind while attempting a dab off Ravindra Jadeja. Stand-in wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, who had stepped in after Rishabh Pant sustained a finger injury in the second session, executed a sharp catch behind the stumps to conclude a determined partnership.
India continued to make progress as Bumrah dismissed Harry Brook with a sharply incoming delivery. At 172/4, England found themselves in a precarious situation. Root, now accompanied by Ben Stokes, continued to battle as he had throughout the day, exercising patience, and found another willing partner in his captain. Under pressure due to poor batting performances leading up to the Test, Stokes also settled in after a couple of flashy shots early on. Their fifty-run partnership took a hundred balls, but it effectively kept India at bay.
By the end of the day Root had raced through the nineties and went up to one short of a ton in the final over of the day but was left to wait for the milestone
SCORECARD: England 251/4 (Joe Root 99*, Ollie Pope 44; Nitish Reddy 2-46) vs India