A shiny and sunny Lord’s welcomed the Indian staff because it skilled for one last time earlier than the third Test, starting on Thursday.
Following the sample, head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill had a shut take a look at the pitch earlier than they’d a fast chat with the curators.
And for the following couple of hours, Gill, Rishabh Pant and Okay.L. Rahul had lengthy periods, the place Deepak Chahar — who’s in England on a rehabilitation programme — bowled to them underneath the watchful eyes of Gambhir and bowling coach Morne Morkel.
Coming on the again of a quite one-sided win in Birmingham, the in-form Indian batters now have to again themselves on a probably difficult surface, the place the quick bowlers may make their presence felt.
With England naming Jofra Archer in its XI after 4 and a half years and Jasprit Bumrah set to interchange Prasidh Krishna in India’s line-up, an thrilling contest awaits.
The final time the 2 groups squared off on the historic venue, again in 2021, India managed a convincing victory. The focus now will probably be to construct on the Edgbaston success and prolong the lead within the five-match sequence.
Vice-captain Pant mentioned that clear communication between the skipper and the gamers helped the facet bounce again after the Leeds reverse.
“When you have a good camaraderie off the field, it eventually shows on the field, and that is exactly what happened,” Pant mentioned. “Hopefully, we can do the same thing with the whole team going forward and just make it one big unit,” he mentioned.
India piling on the runs and discovering success in Edgbaston has compelled England to maneuver from its authentic template of getting ready flat tracks. No surprise, forward of what may very well be a series-defining fixture, the house staff is now set to dish out a observe that gives a honest quantity of seam motion.
Unique problem
Add to that, one may anticipate a quite distinctive problem of a slope — working up and down — on the iconic venue.
However, India doesn’t appear perturbed. The batting unit, barring Karun Nair, has clicked. On the bowling facet of issues, Jasprit Bumrah’s return additional bolsters the tempo line-up, which already options the in-form Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, who had a magical outing in Birmingham.
However, on the eve of the competition, India continued to play thoughts video games with England as Pant mentioned that a resolution on the bowling mixture will probably be taken nearer to the sport.
England will probably be banking on Archer to seek out his rhythm quick. The host may even want Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes to enhance the returning speedster. The dwelling staff’s top- and middle-order batters have lacked consistency and it’s time for captain Ben Stokes and the seasoned Joe Root to step up and play some innings of affect in a bid to maintain England within the hunt.
The groups: England (XI): Ben Stokes (Capt.), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer and Shoaib Bashir.
India (from): Shubman Gill (Capt.), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Okay.L. Rahul, B. Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav.
Match begins at 3:30 p.m. IST.
