Team India stepped up their sledging game on Day 1 of the IND vs ENG 3rd Test at Lord’s. After Ben Stokes opted to bat first, England put their guard down untypical given their recent ‘bazball’ standards. Captain Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj led the verbal volleys, especially towards the well set Joe Root on Thursday.
Joe Root holds steady, India taunt England as ‘Bazball’ slows down
After being outplayed at Edgbaston, England made a giant stride towards ‘sensible’ cricket at Lords. The hosts shunned their usual aggressive cricket, to buckle down and score runs at a lowish pace. England scored at less than 4 in the opening session, having lost Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley to Nitish Kumar Reddy.
With Joe Root holding his own, Mohammed Siraj turned up with some verbal tactics to distract the Englishman. Siraj, bowling to Root, walked up and taunted ‘I want to see bazball’ after a period of defiance from England. Later, Shubman Gill was also caught on the stump mic calling the hosts ‘boring’. That jibe came in response after India were called boring for batting too long in the 2nd test.
It marked only the second time that England have scored under 3 an over in the first 40 overs since Brendon McCullum took over as coach. The only other instance came in the second innings of their first ever Test under Ben Stokes. Overall, England have an overall run-rate of 4.6 under McCullum-Stokes.
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