Boria Majumdar at Lord’s, London
Why Kuldeep Yadav was left out is the question that bothered many of us at the start of the game. By the mid-innings break, that question had only grown louder. It is not as if India played an all-rounder in his place. Their Nos. 8 to 11 were specialist bowlers, yet Kuldeep did not find a place on a pitch that offered very little to the fast bowlers.
Without Jasprit Bumrah, only Arshdeep Singh looked like a genuine wicket-taking option. Prasidh Krishna was ordinary, and so was Gurnoor Brar. Kuldeep could have applied pressure on the batters through the middle overs and picked up wickets. Instead, he was left out once again. I genuinely do not know why and have failed to find any justification for the decision.
As for England’s batting, they were all over India. Ben Duckett, who had twice fallen to Bumrah earlier in the series, made amends with the highest individual ODI score at Lord’s. Jacob Bethell was equally impressive, and for the longest time India struggled to find the right line and length. The slope made life even more difficult for those playing at Lord’s for the first time and, overall, it was a listless bowling performance.
Matches like these test the captain, and while Shubman Gill tried to push his bowlers and fielders, he simply did not have enough to work with. The decision to leave out Kuldeep certainly did not help his cause.
At the halfway stage, it is all England. Lord’s has fallen unusually quiet for the sea of blue. It is difficult to know how India will respond to such a mammoth total. Have they simply been outplayed, or can they mount a fightback on what remains a very good batting surface?
Rohit Sharma, who was very impressive in the field, now has one last chance at Lord’s. The pitch is good and the crowd is firmly behind him. Can he and Virat Kohli lift both the spectators and India’s fortunes after a rather dismal first half? That is the question being asked over lunch in London.
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