India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant struggles with finger injury as India keep England in sight on day two of third Test.
As his India teammates closed in on dismissing England in the third Test at Lord’s, Rishabh Pant gave himself one last personal fitness test.
When England were nine men down, Pant left the dressing room with bat in hand and walked the boundary for an impromptu net session on Friday.
He just wanted to be sure the left index finger he damaged while wicketkeeping on Thursday could handle his eccentric batting style.
The finger seemingly did.
He walked in as arranged at number five in the order and was still there at stumps after scoring 19 off 33 balls.
Although Pant was visibly in pain after some shots, England didn’t really test him.
India batsman Rishabh Pant gets some medical attention for his injured finger [Stu Forster/Getty Images]
He mainly faced tired medium-pacer Chris Woakes and spinner Shoaib Bashir, off whom he hit his three boundaries. He faced only one delivery from the faster Brydon Carse and got a leg bye.
The real test for Pant’s finger and tolerance for pain will surely come on Saturday when India resume on 145-3, trailing England by 242 runs, and he will have to face 145-kilometre-per-hour (90-mile-per-hour) zingers from Jofra Archer and Carse.
Pant was hurt after lunch on Thursday and never returned to keep for India. England wasn’t dismissed until after lunch on Friday, but Pant’s replacement behind the stumps, Dhruv Jurel, shone by taking three catches.
Pant, India’s vice captain, made back-to-back centuries in the first Test and a 65 in the second Test.
One of India’s greatest adversaries has shown up at Lord’s and given England the edge on the first day of the third Test.
As England’s best batter, Joe Root has had a middling impact on the tied Test series so far. But grafting for more than five hours on a roasting pitch on Thursday earned him an unbeaten 99 that was easily beaconed in a total of 251-4 at stumps.
Root fought for almost the entire first day to vindicate captain Ben Stokes’s decision to bat first. Stokes was with him at stumps, on 39, but struggling with a groin or adductor issue that may affect whether he bowls. He had a chance in the last over to run a second single to give Root his century but declined.
Root’s grit typified an approach by England that was more caution than aggression, unconventional in the team’s three years under coach Brendon McCullum and Stokes, the “Bazball” era.
“Slightly different to the way we usually put together an innings but we’ll take it,” batter Ollie Pope told the BBC radio broadcast. “We want to be a team that is positive and entertaining, but we want to play to the situation. Our order is pretty fast scoring on our good days. We all know we can score hundreds off 120 balls, but we need to dig in off this sort of surface.”
Joe Root of England, far left and Mohammed Siraj of India, centre, exchange words during day one of the third Test [Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Bazball takes a break at Lord’s
Despite hardly a cloud in the sky over Lord’s, usually a template for a great batting day, England displayed its slowest scoring in the first session of a Test and reached 100 at its second slowest pace under Bazball. The run rate dropped to 2.75 in the afternoon.
India’s fearsome pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj squeezed the scoring. India’s fielding was tight, and the green-tinged pitch became sluggish enough for spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to bowl 20 of the day’s 83 overs and take one wicket.
Root was slow but steadfast without offering India a single chance.
In the process, he became the first batter to hit 3,000 Test runs against India. He reached his 23rd half-century in 33 Tests against India – he’s averaging 58 – and was one run away from his 11th Test hundred against India, which would tie Steve Smith’s record.
His only previous half-century in the series held together the successful last day run chase in the Leeds opener when England was four down and still 118 runs behind.
This time, he fought for almost the entire day to glue England’s first innings in two big partnerships of 109 with Pope and an unbeaten 79 with Stokes. Root has set the platform for England to rack a big total on Friday while India will be pleased it has not been “Bazballed”.
“Joe Root has inspired everyone in the changing room and in this country,” Pope said. “Fingers crossed he can make it a massive one tomorrow.”
England was more “Bazbore” for a long time in the afternoon as Root and Pope grinded out a sleepy wicketless session, including 28 straight dot balls.
There also was a lengthy delay to treat India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant’s index finger, which was damaged while half-stopping leg byes. He didn’t return for the last half of the day.
After Root and Pope scored only 70 runs in 24 overs in the middle session, the tea interval broke Pope’s focus. In the first ball after tea, Pope went after Jadeja, and Jurel produced a brilliant reflex catch at the stumps. Pope left for 44 off 104 balls.
Harry Brook was then castled on 11 by Bumrah, who grabbed his first wicket in 35 overs stretching back to the Leeds Test. He was rested at Edgbaston.
Ben Stokes of England receives treatment for an injury as Joe Root of England takes a drink [Clive Mason/Getty Images]
England captain hit by leg injury
Stokes joined Root and was playing fluidly until he called for the England medic. He has 39 off 102 balls. Root has 99 off 191, including nine boundaries.
Root came into the game just after the first drinks break in the morning.
Opening batters Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley wobbled during the first hour when the pitch was at its most wicked. But they survived even Bumrah, who found more movement off the pitch than anyone else in the series so far and got a breather at the drinks break. And then they were gone.
The unassuming Nitish Kumar Reddy came into the series only in the second Test for his batting and bowled six expensive overs at Edgbaston. On Thursday, he changed in for Bumrah, and his medium pace lulled Duckett, Crawley and Pope into errors in the same over.
Duckett pulled, Crawley drove and both edged behind. Pope edged to gully, but India captain Shubman Gill couldn’t pull off a stunning one-handed catch.
England were 44-2, but Pope and Root came together and led England safely to lunch and tea.
With 269 runs, captain Shubman Gill breaks Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most scored outside the Indian subcontinent on day two of second Test.
England have stumbled to 77-3 to trail India by 510 runs on day two of their second Test after skipper Shubman Gill scored a record-breaking 269 and their seamers struck early to put the tourists in a commanding position at Edgbaston.
India were charged up on Thursday when Akash Deep picked up two wickets in two balls before Mohammed Siraj also got in on the act to clean up England’s top order and leave them tottering at 25-3 on what had been a good batting wicket.
Ben Duckett nicked a ball to third slip, where Gill took a smart diving catch before Ollie Pope fell the very next delivery for a duck when Deep drew an edge and the ball flew to KL Rahul in the slips.
Dropped catches had cost India the first Test at Headingley, but this time, they stuck as Siraj drew an edge from Zak Crawley to find Karun Nair at first slip.
“Fielding was definitely one of those things we spoke about as a team, and it’s great to see that come off so far,” Gill told the broadcaster Sky Sports.
“This game was all about confidence. We spoke about if we scored 400 again, batting first or batting second, we would be right in the game.”
Harry Brook (30) survived a review for LBW thanks to the umpire’s call, but he and Joe Root (18) absorbed the pressure to see out the day with an unbeaten 52-run partnership.
Record-breaking Gill
Earlier, Gill became the first Indian to score more than 250 outside the Indian subcontinent, breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 241, while he also recorded the highest score by an India captain when he went past Virat Kohli’s 254.
Gill had hardly put a foot wrong over the first two days of the Test, but he briefly lost his concentration after tea when he tried to dispatch a short ball from Josh Tongue, only to find Pope at square leg.
But the Edgbaston crowd rose to their feet to salute the captain’s knock as he walked back to the pavilion, his job done after India found themselves reeling at 211-5 on day one.
“I worked on a few things before the series that I thought might be important for me going into Test cricket,” said Gill, who has scored 424 runs in the series.
“Looking at the results, they are working for me.”
Gill celebrates reaching 200 during day two of the second Test [Stuart Leggett/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
Having resumed on an overnight score of 310-5, Jadeja and Gill built a 203-run stand before the all-rounder fell to a Tongue bouncer, but Gill looked completely at ease on a flat track that offered precious little assistance.
As England’s bowlers toiled under the summer sun, Gill hardly broke a sweat and put a price on his wicket as he showcased his array of elegant drives and well-timed flicks to pile on the runs.
Take a bow, Shubman
Gill made his trademark bow once again after becoming the first India skipper to score a double-hundred in England and soon broke Sunil Gavaskar’s 46-year-old record for the highest score by an Indian in England (221 in 1979).
He was soon toying with the attack and the placement of fielders, coolly switching between sublime and unorthodox shots as he dispatched the ball to all corners of the ground.
With Washington Sundar playing patiently at the other end, Gill was in Twenty20 mode as they cruised past the 500-mark and a rare outside edge went for a boundary to take the captain to 250.
Root finally broke the seventh-wicket partnership of 144 when a delivery broke through the defence of Sundar as he departed for a well-made 42.
India’s tail added only 13 runs after Gill’s dismissal, but that gave their bowlers 20 overs to take a crack at England’s batters on a fruitful day as they look to level the series.
