1st Test, Day 3 report: Jadeja, tailenders hand India decisive advantage on another rain-hit day

Riding on the back of strong performances from KL Rahul and lower-order batsmen, India bounced back from a disastrous phase on the second day’s play to take a decisive lead in the first innings. 

There was no stopping rain on the third day as well and England were 25/0 at the end of the day’s play, significantly behind India’s lead.

England would have hoped for a greater return with the ball and they started on a brilliant note after Rishabh Pant was sent back to the pavilion very early in the piece.

Rise and rise of Jadeja, the batsman

India lost the big wicket of Pant at 145 runs and England’s first innings total of 183 appeared too far away. India had taken a big call of dropping Ashwin for an extra pacer and picked Jadeja more for his batting.

It could not have been a better occasion for Jadeja to repay the faith by the team management and he started leaving balls around off stump to give Rahul comfort at the other end. 

Jadeja has had success in England before but all of those knocks have come in swashbuckling avatars and hence the team management would have been ecstatic at seeing him building an innings like a champion batsman.

He put on a sixty run partnership with Rahul to take India past the 200-run mark and as soon as Anderson bounced back to send both Rahul and Shardul Thakur back to the pavilion, he switched himself back to the mode has been otherwise known for in international cricket.

Between Shardul’s departure to his dismissal, the all-rounder hit some remarkable shots including one pickup shot off Anderson that went sailing over the long leg boundary.

The eagerness to dictate terms to the England bowling lineup resulted in his downfall as Ollie Robinson proved his credentials as a bowler by making life tough for batsmen by bowling hard lengths.

Indian tail wags, finally

Indian tailenders have not had the best of times and their struggle with the bat have been there for many years now. At the same time, they face a lot of difficulties to wipe out the oppositions’ tail and it has made for a frustrating view of the Indian bowling attack.

On the last tour of England in 2018, the highest aggregate by India’s 9th, 10th and 11th batsmen was 20and the issue was so problematic that India could not attain the guts to play four out and out pacers and included Sahrdul Thakur.

However, all of that were to be put to rest by the Indian tailenders led by Jasprit Bumrah, who mimicked the mindset of the accomplished batsman by changing the approach of his batting with a very change in the situation.

Bumrah has had to see Sam Curran thrashing his bowling partner for fun while batting with batsmen lower to him and he offered him a taste of his own medicine. He smashed the left armer for three consecutive boundaries, one of which went over the midwicket boundary when he pulled right out of Rohit Sharma’s school of pulling a ball.

India’s last three added as many as 73 runs and the 95 runs lead established ow valuable were their contributions in taking India to an advanced position in the game.

Robinson puts ban behind him

Ollie Robinson walked into this game after serving a ban and an uncertain period where his career could well have been hampered. There was o impact of his recent past on his bowling though and he was the best enforcer for England although Anderson picked the biggest wicket of the Indian batting lineup.

He was the one who explored the centre of the pitch when nothing was working for his partners to dismiss Rohit, and today it was him only who pegged India back by the wicket of Pant very early in the day.

Again, it was him only who did not offer hittable lengths to Jadeja, who was looking to make good use of the freedom that batting with lower-order batsmen brought to him. 

His impressive bowling and a fifer were critical for England as they were suffering from an off-colour Stuart Broad on his home ground in Nottingham.

England’s slippery fingers

If England don’t improve their catching in the slips and also in general, there will be competitions between their batting department and fielding department as to what is their weakest department.

Earlier Dom Sibley had dropped KL Rahul off Anderson which resulted in more and more pain for England and Joe Root compounded his misery by dropping another edge of the right-hander’ bat by himself.

Then, James Anderson dropped Ravindra Jadeja while fielding at mid-off although that drop did not cost them so dearly.

Looking ahead to 4th day

England batsmen have their task cut out to fend off India’s four-man pace attack on the fourth-day pitch that will become damper and damper due to increasing rain. Some balls have started stopping on batsmen and it resulted in Pant’s dismissal on the hid day and they will have to be watchful for natural variations off the surface.

There are fair chances of rain stoppages on the fourth day as well and their task will be made difficult by constant on and off due to intermittent rain breaks.

India, on the other hand, will back their bowlers to dismiss England on the fourth day itself if weather permits and then will set their eyes on a target to take a 1-0 lead in the series. 

The game can go anywhere, but in all sense of likelihood, only Joe Root and rain stand in between an Indian win and a draw in Nottingham, and the script will be far more clear by the end of the fourth day’s play.