Trisha Ghosal in Leeds
India started the day on overnight 359/3, with their captain and vice-captain both well settled. Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant continued their good work in the morning and while Pant completed his century, the India captain fell just three runs shy of 150. When Gill got out, India’s score was 430/4. In came the comeback man Karun Nair.
Nair Gets a Duck on Comeback
Karun Nair’s story is one of hard work and dedication. The comeback wasn’t gifted to him — he worked hard, performed in domestic cricket and forced the selectors to slot him back into the team. His double hundred in the practice game against England Lions justified his selection further. But in the two days that the Indian team practised in Leeds, Nair looked a shadow of the player he had been in the domestic season and the practice game.
He just didn’t seem sure of his off stump, kept poking at deliveries nervously and even got hit by Prasidh Krishna. All this had happened two days before the match. One day before the game, Nair again batted for a long time, but he just couldn’t get his timing right. He was either too late or too early.
The reader might wonder what all this has to do with his dismissal — after all, Ollie Pope took a screamer — but the fact that Nair wasn’t connecting in the nets meant he was desperate to get off the mark. In his desperation, he wasn’t fully committed to that shot. Had he played with confidence instead of tentativeness, he might have cleared the in-field. A duck on comeback for Nair.
Inswing Does Pant In
Just like Day One, India lost two wickets on the stroke of lunch, but Pant wanted to keep going. England saw the overcast conditions, the old ball doing a little, and they kept bowling inswingers to the wicketkeeper-batter.
Josh Tongue had got one to curve back in late and quite sharply. He had been troubling Pant with inswing from around the wicket since the previous over. Pant had thought it wouldn’t come straight at him and offered no shot. But it hadn’t been wide or short enough for the ball to miss the stumps or his body. It swung back in nicely from a good length, hit him just around the kneeroll, and would have smashed middle-and-leg. Pant departed for a well-made 134, and India lost three wickets in quick succession.
Shardul Thakur Fails to Make a Mark with the Bat
Shardul Thakur came in at No. 8. In the matchday-minus-two practice, Shardul and Nitish Kumar Reddy both bowled for a long spell, and Shardul bowled really well. When it came to batting, both of them padded up and took turns. But Thakur was struggling.
Outside off, Thakur was having an issue with his weight being stuck on the back foot. He wasn’t able to press forward and ended up edging while trying to drive balls in the corridor of uncertainty.
Maybe against any other England bowler, Thakur might still have had a chance. But against Ben Stokes — who has been their best bowler in this innings by a country mile — Thakur didn’t really stand a chance. Stokes bowled a nice outswinger outside off; Thakur went for a drive and edged it to the keeper.
Have England Got a Sniff In?
With India at 430/3, it all seemed an uphill task for Ben Stokes’ men. But from there, India lost four wickets for 24 runs. A score that could have had England on the back foot, playing catch-up throughout the match, has suddenly turned into a total that is big, but not excruciatingly worrying on a batting pitch like this one.
With Ravindra Jadeja at the crease, India would still want to push the score further, while Stokes and his men will have their tail up — especially in these overcast conditions when the ball is moving.
Can India pull it back in this session, or will we see one of those famous England comebacks? The beauty of Test cricket is that it’s never over and done with for any team. An English summer’s day, overcast skies, two gripping sessions and loads of drama still to unfold. Sit back, buckle up and keep watching.
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