Credit: BCCI/X
The first session on day one of the third Test between England and India was filled with pulsating battle between bat and ball at Lord’s in London with the five-match series level at 1-1. After England openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley played out the first hour on Thursday, July 10, Nitish Kumar Reddy, who bowls right-arm medium fast, was brought into the attack, who changed the complexion of the innings completely in favour of the Indian cricket team with a couple of wickets after being asked to bowl first by Ben Stokes.
On the third ball of his first over, Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled a shorter length delivery outside the leg stump, which Ben Duckett tried to jab pull towards the leg side, but he could only glove it straight to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, losing his wicket on 23 off 40 after hitting three fours. The next ball from the batting all-rounder was a fuller length delivery, which Ollie Pope tried to drive on the up, only to edge it straight to Shubman Gill in the cordon, but the Indian captain failed to catch the ball with his outstretched right hand on the dive.
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After the strike was changed, Zak Crawley faced up to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who bowled him a good length delivery in the corridor of uncertainty. The right-handed batter was feeling for the ball, and he ended up edging it straight through to the wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who took the catch gleefully, to ensure that the batting all-rounder took two wickets in his first over after all the hard work done by the recognised pacers.
Jasprit Bumrah, who returned to India’s playing XI after resting from the previous Test, bowled an exceptional first spell to the English openers without finding a way to take their wickets. His bowling partners Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, who were exceptional with the ball in the second Test win for India, provided great support to him without finding their names on the wicket-takers list.
Below are the playing XIs of England and India for the third Test at Lord’s in London:
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah
