IND vs ENG: Exactly six years after England’s triumph in the 2019 ODI World Cup Final, Ben Stokes and co. registered another victory at the ‘Mecca of Cricket’ by defeating India in the third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series.
Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj had almost pulled off a repeat of what Stokes had done in Headingley in 2019, but cricket is a game of bare margins, and the final ball of the Lord’s Test is a testament to it. England defeated India by 22 runs, and they are currently 2-1 up in the series.
Just like the first Test match of the series, India dominated most of the sessions of the Lord’s Test, but things boiled down to the final day, and India crumbled under pressure, resulting in yet another batting collapse. England had asked India to chase 193 odd runs in the final session of the Lord’s Test. The total did look small considering the quality of batters that India have in their ranks, but a resilient English team did everything right to deny India a famous victory.
Number Three Batter: The Biggest Issue With Indian Test Team
Batting collapses on big days has been the biggest problem with the Indian team for the past few years, and the Lord’s Test was no different. Prior to Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s Test retirements, Shubman Gill was groomed to play at number three after Cheteshwar Pujara found himself out of the team. Gill, originally an opener, is now playing at number four, and he has already scored over 600 runs in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series.
The number three batter is gradually becoming a huge problem for India. The team management used Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair as India’s number across all the three Test matches played so far. Sudharsan batted number three for India in the Headingley Test, whereas Nair was given the opportunity to walk out for the same position in the Lord’s Test. Both the batters produced underwhelming results. Nair, in particular, who scored big runs in domestic cricket and forced his way back into the Indian team, hasn’t grabbed the opportunities that were given to him.
Here’s A List Of India’s Number Three In Test Matches Since 1997
- 1997-2012: Rahul Dravid
- 2012-2023: Cheteshwar Pujara
- Since 2023: Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Sai Sudharsan, and Karun Nair
The Curious Case Of Karun Nair
Fans and experts had expected big things out of Karnataka batter Karun Nair ahead of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series. Nair is only the second batsman after Virender Sehwag to score 300 runs in an innings of a Test match. Scores of 0, 20, 31, 26, 40, and 14 in the ongoing India vs England series haven’t helped Nair’s case, who made his way into the Indian Test team after a long gap of eight years. The 33-year-old batter is also to be blamed for India’s heartbreaking defeat at Lord’s, and he might find himself out of the mix in the next Test match of the series.