England opted not to train on Tuesday but Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum still made a beeline for Lord’s. Two days out from the third Test – a pivotal match with the series locked at one apiece – they were keen to speak to the groundstaff to express their hopes for a pitch with pace, bounce, and a bit of sideways movement.
It was too late to be making demands and like the disappointed customers of Mr Tourette, signwriter extraordinaire from the Modern Toss cartoons, England’s captain and head coach had to settle for a slow, occasionally two-paced surface. Throw in a sluggish outfield – plus an Indian attack buoyed up by the win at Edgbaston and augmented by Jasprit Bumrah – and run-scoring was far from straightforward.
The upshot was a throwback of an opening day in which England were grateful to the enduring class of Joe Root to give them a foothold in the contest.
Arriving at 44 for two in the morning, and walking off unbeaten on 99 from 191 balls at the close, Root had steered the hosts to 251 for four from 83 overs. Seven overs were lost to a combination of injuries, ball changes, heat, and even a swarm of ladybirds late on.
Ollie Pope’s uncharacteristically watchful 44 from 104 balls had earlier underlined the struggle for fluency, while Stokes offered hope of his form returning with 39 not out. The chief blow for the latter was a possible groin injury that hampered his running. In the end, as anticipation grew around the ground in the final over, this prevented Root from completing Test century No 37 and his eighth at Lord’s.
Whether it follows on day two or not, this was still a fine hand from the master: five-and-a-half hours of studious defence in which he became the first player in history to go past 3,000 Test runs against India. Root struck just nine fours among the 25 witnessed – itself an indicator of the conditions – with this innings instead a case of getting his head down and outwilling Bumrah and co.
Neither Stokes nor the crowd knew it would be such a grind when the coin went up and his decision to bat first was met with a cheer. Fresh out of the underground, and then hit by the heatwave that has made pitch preparation so tricky this summer, folks were probably expecting a day of Bazball in full flow: balls racing to the rope and the scoreboard ticking over like the wheels of a fruit machine.
But there were early signs it might be so as England chiselled their way to 83 for two by lunch. Bumrah’s fourth ball of the morning had scuttled along the ground and the slips were unsure how close to stand. Not that this was much of a surprise to anyone who watched the World Test Championship final last month.
The source of the first two wickets to fall was, however. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett had just about kept India’s frontliners at bay to score 39 runs by drinks, only to find themselves battling a brief period of movement once the ball had lost its lacquer. Shubman Gill threw it to his fourth seamer, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and the all-rounder wiped out both openers in his first over.
For Duckett there was cause to chunter something that rhymed with his surname – a leg-side long hop gloved behind on 23 – while Crawley, on 18, was undone by a sublime late outswinger that found the edge. Not that Crawley had been hugely convincing up to this point, given some of the charging swipes that met fresh air.
In between there was the latest skittish start for Pope: a life first ball when he drove hard at Reddy and Gill grassed a tough chance at gully.
P ope edged the first three deliveries he faced, in fact, before his heart rate dropped to match that of Root and the pair set about a stand of 109 runs in 35 overs and a wicketless afternoon.
Burying their egos, they had built a promising platform and even drove the feisty Mohammed Siraj to the point of asking Root for some Bazball. India were also forced into a change behind the stumps during this session, Dhruv Jurel coming on as a substitute after a ball down leg from Bumrah had injured one of Rishabh Pant’s fingers.
But off the first ball of the final session came a twist and a smart catch by Jurel.
There had been a bit of turn for Ravindra Jadeja during an exploratory over before tea but not enough to advise caution, Pope feathering a drive behind and falling to his knees in disbelief. Having overcome a probing spell from Bumrah – Root wisely stayed at the other end for the bulk of it – this reaction was understandable.
With England 153 for three in the 50th over, Gill immediately whistled to Bumrah to return and in a four-over burst the world’s No 1 bowler delivered for his captain. It took out the world’s No 1 batter in the process, with Harry Brook’s first innings back at the top of the tree ended on 11 by a ball that nipped in and rattled off-stump.
Root, the man Brook usurped, ploughed on and saw out the day with Stokes for company. Not that it was straightforward or without incident, Stokes surviving a reviewed lbw on 27 via umpire’s call and also seemingly tweaking his groin.
The knock-on effect for his bowling and thus England’s attack is a concern, not least with fingers already crossed over Jofra Archer’s much-anticipated return.
