Joe Root was left unbeaten on 99 as England showed their backbone on a hard fought first day of the third Rothesay Test against India.
Root has scored seven centuries at the home of cricket, more than any other batter to have played the game, and was one short of racking up an eighth as England knuckled down to 251 for four – a rare example of Bazball with brakes.
He would surely have got there before the close had it not been for a bizarre break in play late on, a swarm of ladybirds interrupting proceedings and costing Root an extra over to get over the line.
🏏 Root 99* overnight!
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 10, 2025
🤔 Test century #37 tomorrow?
💪 A great tussle at Lord's
📽 Full opening day highlights!
While England’s ability to produce thrill-a-minute batting displays is not in doubt, their readiness for the less glamourous side of the game has come into question.
They were unable to produce the resilience required to salvage a draw at Edgbaston last week but did churn through some hard yards to build their position on an attritional day.
Root personified the shift in approach, scoring his runs from 191 deliveries as England settled for an unusually stately scoring rate of 3.02 an over.
The worst news for the hosts was another injury scare for captain Ben Stokes, who finished unbeaten on 39 but hobbled through the closing stages with what appeared to be a groin complaint.
Stokes kicked the habit of bowling first after winning his third toss of the series, putting the top order on a collision course with the returning Jasprit Bumrah.
England managed to keep the world’s number one bowler quiet until the evening session, when he dismissed Harry Brook with a beauty, but they did not have things their own way.
All-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy removed both openers in the space of four deliveries in an even morning session that yielded 83 for two, and Ollie Pope fell to the first ball after tea having put on 109 alongside Root.
That they did not buckle was a testament to their hunger after the disappointment of the series-levelling loss in Birmingham.
England kicked things off with a stand of 43, gradually settling after a tricky start. Ben Duckett nicked his very first ball from Bumrah just short of the wicketkeeper and survived some unwise flashes at India’s danger man.
Zak Crawley left a couple early on but did not stay silent for long, bursting into life with four boundaries in the space of eight deliveries as he used his feet to upset Akash Deep’s length.
Navigating the new ball looked like a victory for England but trouble was just around the corner.
Reddy, an unassuming medium-pacer with just five wickets in his first six Tests, burst things open with the worst ball of the morning as Ben Duckett gloved a rank drag down through to Rishabh Pant.
Pope was close to following for a golden duck but Shubman Gill failed to hold a difficult one-handed chance. He got off strike with a thick edge, putting Crawley in the dock to face a snorter from Reddy.
If the Duckett wicket was a stroke of luck, this was a moment of inspiration – a swinging, lifting delivery that demanded a nick. It almost got even worse for England when Pope made it three edges in as many balls, but his latest error hit the turf in front of second slip.
England badly needed a period of calm and in Root, they had the perfect man for the job. His calmness closed India down in the run up to lunch and his willingness to wear down the bowlers had a soothing effect on Pope.
At one stage in the afternoon, England knitted together 28 consecutive dot balls, only breaking the sequence with a dashed single.
They added just 70 runs between lunch and tea, content to occupy rather than dominate. England’s hundred took 35.4 overs, the second longest they have waited for that landmark in the Stokes-McCullum era and Root’s own 50 used up 102 balls.
The break in play brought an end to their gentle progress, Pope aiming a full-throttle drive at Ravindra Jadeja’s first ball of the evening session and nicking behind. It was a sharp catch from India’s substitute gloveman Dhruv Jurel, deputising for Pant after a nasty blow to the finger.
When Bumrah finally got himself into the action in his 16th over, toppling Brook’s off stump with one that jagged in sharply, India had another chance to wrestle the initiative.
But Root’s focus was impeccable, standing firm against all comers and biding his time with occasional moments of quality strokeplay. One on-drive oozed class but he never got ahead of himself, demanding the bowlers chase him rather than doing the running himself.
Stokes was equally willing to put a shift in for the team but his stay became a trial when he felt a twinge and called for treatment. He did not abandon post despite being in clear discomfort but was visibly struggling with his running between the wickets.
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