India suffered a 22-run defeat at Lord’s in the third Test against England. At one stage, the visitors were staring at humiliation, but Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj put up a superb fight to drag the match into the final session. However, they ultimately fell short of the target.
Speaking to Sony Sports about the defeat, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar pointed out that the loss was largely due to the absence of a solid 60–70 run partnership. Notably, none of the top-order batters who came out to bat on Day 5 managed to survive at the crease—except Jadeja—while tail-enders Bumrah and Siraj showed remarkable resilience.
Gavaskar also raised concerns over Jadeja’s overly cautious approach during the chase, despite his unbeaten 61 off 181 balls.
“A partnership of 60-70 would have made a difference. India never got that. You could say that Jadeja could have taken the odd chance and not necessarily the aerial route when Joe Root and Shoaib Bashir was bowling. But full marks to him (Jadeja),” he said.
Gavaskar emphasised the phases when Bashir and Root were bowling and Ben Stokes was fielding at mid-off, suggesting that Jadeja should have looked to capitalise and score boundaries.
“I thought when Bashir came to bowl, Jadeja could have taken a chance. The second time was when Bumrah was batting with him, because Stokes was fielding inside the circle at mid-off. So he could have scored a boundary there, especially when Joe Root was bowling. Later when Siraj came to bat, Stokes stationed himself near the boundary rope,” he said.
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