England put to the test by India's pacers

England's decision to bat first in the third Test against India at Lord's proved to be a testing affair for the batters. 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.

With India's pace attack bolstered by the return of Jasprit Bumrah, in place of Prasidh Krishna, 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 wicket-keeper 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 Deep and Bumrah were 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 Ollie Pope rode his luck alongside a busy Joe Root to weather that storm with a fighting partnership. The duo added 39 by Lunch to steady a rocking boat.

Brief Scores: England 83/2 (Ben Duckett 23; Nitish Reddy 2/14) vs India