INDIA’S TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
Root finished the day unbeaten on 99. © Getty
Joe Root anchored England’s innings on a day when the batters were tested intensively throughout. Root, who crossed 3000 Test runs against India, took an old-fashioned approach of grinding it out and accumulated 99* by the end of the first day at Lord’s.
Egland’s decision to bat first in the third Test proved to be a tough ask. The decision to bat was uncommon for England at home in recent times, but on a green top that had received a bit of trimming on the first morning, England had shown an intention to change up their plans from the previous two Tests of the series. But conditions were far from ideal for the quick-scoring template that has come to be associated with them, and instead required a lot of waiting and punching while copping some blows along the way.
For a major part of his innings, Root had Ollie Pope alongside as they fought their way through a partnership worth 109 in 211 balls, which helped England recover after losing a couple of early wickets. India’s attack had done well early in the day to mount pressure on the hosts.
With the pace attack bolstered by the return of Jasprit Bumrah, in place of Prasidh Kirshna, the openers were tested in a variety of ways. There was some movement on offer for both Bumrah and his new-ball partner Akash Deep. But alongside, there was also some uneven bounce that at times came to their rescue. Genuine edges fell short of the wicketkeeper or the slip cordon right through the first hour. Consequently, the plays and misses too increased with the ball showing enough deviation off the surface.
The false shot percentage in the first 15 overs was 38.4% – the highest for the first 15 overs of any Test innings in England since 2006. England’s pace in scoring was down as a result, with boundaries not coming by as frequently as they have normalised in the Bazball era. While both Akash and Bumrah being unlucky not to have a wicket against their name, Nitish Reddy found himself at the other end of that spectrum. In his first over he had Ben Duckett gloving a pull down the legside. A couple of balls later, he produced a peach of an away-seamer to get Zak Crawley nicking behind. In between, Reddy could have had another if Shubman Gill had latched onto a tough low chance at gully.
But Pope rode his luck alongside a busy Root to weather that storm with a fighting partnership. Scoring had been reduced to a snail’s pace and they went through a phase where there were no runs score for over four overs consecutively. The run-rate of 2.91 was also England’s second-slowest at home in the Bazball era over a full season. Nevertheless, Root went on to register his 103rd score of fifty or more with Pope also nearing the milestone by the stroke of Tea. But immediately after the break, Pope was caught behind attempting a dab off Ravindra Jadeja. Stand-in ‘keeper Dhruv Jurel, who had come in after Rishabh Pant injured his finger in the second session, took a sharp catch behind the stumps to end a stubborn stand.
India made further inroads with Bumrah getting rid off Harry Brook with a sharp incoming delivery. At 172/4, England were back in a spot of bother. Root, now joined by Ben Stokes, proceeded to fight it out as he had done all day biding his time, and found another willing partner in his skipper. Under pressure for poor returns with the bat in the lead-up to the Test, Stokes too got stuck in after a couple of flashy shots early on. Their fifty-run partnership took hundred balls but it also ensured that it 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
Brief Scores: England 251/4 (Joe Root 99*, Ollie Pope 44; Nitish Reddy 2-46) vs India
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