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The 3 reasons why Team India lost Lord's Test against England were largely about India not playing well enough and their tough challengers doing that quite well and in aplenty. At Lord's, there was a great chance for India to go one up in the series, primarily because all that was asked of them were no more than 193 runs. With over a day left to win, while KL Rahul lasted for a few good overs, others around him fell without much resistance. Surely, from the one end, Archer and Stokes kept coming hard at India, the paucity of runs at India's end didn't help the visitors' cause.
All the sentimental talk of a miracle at Lord's, which India were fully capable of exacting at the great cricketing venue became at the end of it all, just a dream. And truth be told, barring the courageous act and lone vigil of Jadeja, not too many around him were able to deliver the answers India so desperately sought. So what didn't work out? Let us attempt to understand the 3 reasons why Team India lost Lord's Test against England.
Here are three reasons why Team India lost the Lord's Test against England:
Ben Stokes, the bowler shines at the right time
He's charismatic, courageous and leads by an example - doesn't he? So even as Ben Stokes, the marauding batter has missed out, so far, in the Test series, that doesn't mean he failed to channelise the big role played by a fast bowler as exceptionally as only he can. And at Lord's, one saw the resurgence of Ben Stokes the key bowler who attacked India in tandem, first with Archer steaming in from one end (5 wickets in total) and later on, with Woakes and Carse bowling at different stages.
Ben Stokes kept a tight lid on India's run scoring in the fourth innings and bowled 24 overs, the most by any English bowler. But his big breakthrough came in the form of KL Rahul's wicket, India's only centurion in the game and later on, when Bumrah hung in there for long and showed no sign of backing out, Stokes got him out too! That was crucial.
His tireless spell explained one of the 3 reasons why Team India lost Lord's Test against England.
Failure to stitch vital stands
It really doesn't help much when much of the team's frontline batters fail to deliver with the tail-enders sticking it out in a rearguard action, that though has the element of fight but is never quite enough. The same was quite evident at Lord's where not only did Yashasvi Jaiwal and Karun Nair failed to support KL Rahul in the first part of the chase, the left-hander and right hander contributing with scores of 0 and 14, respectively, in the end, the fighting Jadeja, with an impressive half century was left stranded as he ran out of partners.
While a fighting stand of 30 runs, first with Nitish Reddy was formed, later on Jadeja saw Bumrah assisting him for another 35 runs. But these runs were needed from the batters up the order, and when KL Rahul fell on the final day of the run-chase at Lord's, it was pretty much game over for India.
Jadeja did fight on his own, but alas, that wasn't going to be enough. A failure to stitch promising stands was one of the three reasons why India lost Lord's Test against England.
Notable batters failed to deliver when needed
Blaming individuals in a team's defeat is against the spirit of the game but then one must try and identify some weaklings that may have led to the opponent gaining an advantage when just the opposite would have been needed.
Therefore, let's break down the individual batting efforts of Yashasvi Jaiwal and Karun Nair to understand possibly that which must be focused on without much ado. For it is the opener and the key number 3 position that needs to fire especially in a run chase when there's pressure. On the whole, Karun Nair, brought back into the team and placed at the critical number three, scored 54 runs. While his 40 in the first innings did convey some hope that he was finally finding lost form but not delivering with the bat when a run-chase was on, did hurt India's cause.
Also there's not been a lot of talk about how Jaiswal didn't contribute in either of the innings. India's frontline opener made 13 runs off the bat and batted for just 15 odd deliveries at Lord's.
If that can explain one of the 3 reasons why Team India lost Lord's Test against England! Moreover, Gill coming into pressure and missing out big time on scoring useful runs only compounded India's problems further in the game.
