India needed a remarkable turnaround, on the line of what England had on the first day after Lord’s Test, on the second day to get back in the third Test against England in Leeds. England batsmen had learnt some lessons from their and their counterparts’ failures to bat with discipline and flair to deny them any opportunity for a backdoor entry.
India were not disciplined enough with the ball to keep the run-scoring down and it meant that the England batting lineup was never under real pressure. They already had the big cushion of lead and inaccurate bowling from India in patches, and Ishant Sharma, in general, made their life easier.
The tourists clogged the momentum back with some quick wickets towards the final hour of the day but the game might well have slipped out of their grasp by then.
From an overnight score of 120/0, England batted strongly to go past the 300-run mark before a mini-collapse hurt their progress. However, Craig Overton ensured an elongated misery for the tired Indian bowling attack and some more opportunity to add on to an already humungous lead of 345 runs.
Root, the run machine is back
England skipper Joe Root has had the magnificent luxury of watching his openers bat confidently against Indian pacers, something he has not been lucky to witness in the recent past. As Burns and Hameed started pressing on with confidence against pacers, Root waited for a long long time as the returning man Dawid Malan too did not want to miss out on the chance to pile on the misery.
He has had two scores of 100 and one fifty in the four innings before the first innings at Headingley and there could have been some sense of optimism for Indian fans based on the “law of averages”. However, the moment he came out to bat, the fluency of strokes coming out of his bat showed that he did not have any failure in the second innings at Lord’s and that he was batting with the same touch after scoring a century.
The skipper looked in awesome touch and displayed a completely different style of batsmanship compared to the likes of Virat Kohli while trying to combat swing and seam. He has been batting without too much front foot stride and has also been reluctant to come forward unless Indian pacers have asked him to drive.
The trend of scoring in the area between gully and point region continued as Root carried on playing deliveries right under his eyes which showcase his commanding form and awareness of where his off stump is.
He reached his century with a remarkable strike rate and equalled the record held by Michael Vaughan and Denis Compton as the England batsmen with the most hundred in a calendar year. He has six to his name this year and the kind of form he has been in, one can’t rule out the figure reaching 10 or beyond that mark.
Malan’s comeback party
Dawid Malan has not had too many opportunities to bat in red-ball cricket before being called up to play Test cricket in more than three years time. He has been picked purely on promise based on a century against Australia in Perth.
His record in England was terrible and the first Test against India at Edgbaston in 2018 led to his departure from the side. He was caught all over the place by an impressive Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, and hence a return match against a struggling Indian side was a perfect fateful return for the left-hander.
He always bats with a touch of flair through the off side and announced his arrival with a classy cover drive. He has also been known for being severe against the short ball and Indian pacers, especially Mohammed Siraj, were kind enough to offer him plenty of those deliveries to help in getting back to the groove of Test cricket.
As he got his eyes in, flamboyant drives also followed and he passed his only second fifty in his 10th match on home soil. He was determined and at the same time very bullish against loose balls before a strangle down the leg side curtailed his near-perfect return to the Test arena. He missed a deserving century but his 139 run partnership with skipper Root obliterated whatever chance India had of a comeback in the game.
Also, his confidence and fluency will leave the England team management relieved and confident about their prospect in the series and the Ashes series later at the end of the year.
Ishant’s horrible rhythm, Kohli’s rigidity
Ishant Sharma has not been at his best in this game and it was evident from his first spell where he could barely manage to bowl in the channel around off stump. The length was also terrible for someone who has his career built on the credentials of accuracy and consistency.
He was handed the new ball in place of Siraj or Shami at Lord’s as well and the trend continued in this game. The move did not pay well for Kohli as the pacer was all over the place in his run-up and line of attack.
It should have been clear to Kohli that the bowler of choice to start the second day was two among Bumrah, Shami or Siraj. However, the skipper went for Ishant and the result was nothing different one more time. He started with another obnoxious wide delivery that also turned out to be a non-ball and the downhill curve for him never stopped till the penultimate ball of the day.
An off day or struggle for rhythm for a pacer is not a crime but Kohli should have shown flexibility in choosing the best two bowlers based on the current rhythm. Ishant has been India’s go-to man on pitches friendly for pacers due to his consistency and not allowing batsmen free balls to leave or score but all those virtues were absent in the game and Kohli should not have been rigid about his tactics right at the start of the day that started on an ominous note for the Indians.
Looking forward to the third day
England would believe they have enough in the bank to force outright innings win over India but they are unlikely to declare their first innings. They would be looking forward to adding as much as they can to the 345 run lead and the able bats of Overton and Ollie Robinson can frustrated Indians further before they will start the battle for their survival.
India will near marathon innings from at least a couple of batsmen in case they want to compete in the game. Surpassing England’s lead will take a monumental effort considering their recent form and if they can produce their best performances with the bat, the match can get slightly more even than the currently heavily stacked in the favour of the hosts.
The experienced trio of captain Kohli, vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, in particular, will have to bring their best to the pitch on the third day if India can dare to escape this game without squandering their 1-0 lead.