India lost by a narrow margin of 22 runs at Lord’s despite a valiant fightback from Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj. Former India all-rounder and head coach Ravi Shastri believes there were two key moments where India let the match slip away from their grasp.
Shastri pinpointed the turning point as Rishabh Pant’s dismissal, run out by a brilliant piece of fielding from England captain Ben Stokes just before lunch on day three. At that point, Pant and KL Rahul were looking solid, and Shastri believes India could have taken a first-innings lead if Pant had stayed longer.
“The turning point for me in this Test match was, first of all, Rishabh Pant’s dismissal [in the first innings],” Shastri told Sanjana Ganesan on the latest edition of The ICC Review. “Ben Stokes, simply outstanding presence of mind to hit at the right end and pull it off on the stroke of lunch. Because India would have got a lead and they were in the driver’s seat.”
Another key moment for Shastri was Karun Nair’s dismissal in the second innings, which he described as a lapse in concentration.
“Having said that, again at 40/1 [in the second innings], I thought that was a huge lapse in concentration from Karun Nair to leave a straight ball, a nothing ball, to leave it and open the door for England. I thought that the timing of that dismissal turned things around,” he said.
“Top Order Needed to Be Mentally Tougher” – Shastri
Shastri believes that if the top-order had shown more resolve at the end of Day 4, India
might have sealed the win. He credited the lower order for showing grit once the ball got older.
“So it just goes to show that [if] the top order had just been a little tougher and mentally stronger on Day 4, towards the end, this game would have been India’s. Because you saw when Siraj batted, when Bumrah batted, when Jadeja was batting, once the ball was 40 overs old, they hardly put a foot wrong,” he added.
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