New Delhi: England switched their usual style of play from Bazball to traditional to gain some momentum on the opening day of the third Test match against India at the Lord’s. The seasoned Joe Root proved to be a trained master as the English side regained the lost ground after India dented them with some crucial wickets and some sustained pressure.
Along with Root, who remained one run short of a century, skipper Ben Stokes stood tall to take England to 251/4 at stumps on the opening day. The duo shared an unbeaten partnership of 79 runs off 170 balls after an exhausting day’s play. Root was batting on 99 while skipper Stokes, who ably supported the seasoned campaigner, was standing tall on a score of 39 runs after winning the toss.
Root put England in command at stumps after curbing his natural style of play and instead restored to the old fashioned Test cricket. In a sluggish first session of the day, India managed to not only control the English batters but also go to Lunch with two wickets in hand. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were dismissed for 23 and 18 runs respectively by Nitish Kumar Reddy, who dispatched both the players in a single over.
The post-Lunch session was expected to turn out in India’s favour as the wicket was turning the best to bowl on as compared to the flat tracks in the last two Tests but it proved to be otherwise as England changed the gear denying India any more wickets in the second session. The third and final session of the day caught some interest after Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah gave two more blows to England.
While Jadeja scalped the wicket of Ollie Pope on 44, Bumrah got rid of the dangerous Harry Brook on 11 as India got back into the game. But then, Root and Stokes jointly resorted to an old form of Test cricket to regain command in the game.
