Credit: X
After the drink’s break at the hour mark was completed during the first session of day three of the Lord’s Test in London, the umpires were spotted looking for the perfect replacement ball to give to the England cricket team to bowl at Indian batters. Ravi Shastri, who was in the commentary box with Ian Ward on Sky Cricket’s live broadcast of the third Test of the five-match series, called out the umpires when five of the replacement balls inside the box failed the ring test one after another.
His comments came just after Ian Ward criticised the umpires for not getting the process done of replacing the ball during the drink’s break, extending it by more than double the original time, which generally ends up cutting down on the number of overs bowled in a day’s play. During the Lord’s Test, the quality of balls, manufactured by Dukes for the series, has come into serious question with the players not happy with its shape, wanting to get it changed as early as 10 overs or so.
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When the ball was eventually changed, it didn’t make much of a difference for England’s bowling lineup as KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant shared a 141-run stand for the fourth wicket, to put India in a very good position in pursuit of a first innings total of 387 runs before the latter got run out. Shortly after, KL Rahul managed to score his 10th Test hundred of the career, the second at Lord’s against England, but he lost his wicket to Shoaib Bashir moments later to allow England to more than find a way back into the contest with India on 254/5 in the second session on day three of the contest.
Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy have managed to share an unbeaten stand of 50 runs for the sixth wicket, to put the third Test of the five-match series firmly in the balance once again.
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
