James Anderson, Joe Root lead England fightback against India at Lord’s in 2nd Test

Among the many of the reasons why India emerged victorious against Australia at the start of 2021 was due to the fact that they came up with potent plans and perfect execution against the home team’s run-machines in Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne. 

The idea was to dry up their scoring areas, not give Smith and Labuschagne any loose balls, not let them drive or cut, force them to strive hard for runs to the extent of pushing them into making errors — brilliant plans that eventually led to their cheap dismissals more often than not. 

This remained the theme of Indian bowlers’ domination of two of the world’s best batsmen in their own backyard, almost throughout the four-match series which the visiting team won 2-1. Smith had only a century to show, Labuschagne none. 

It is both important and relevant to recall what happened in Australia and what significance it carries for the Indian team currently playing in England, one which is touted to record their first series win here since 2007. 

Knowing that India’s batting is fallible and plenty of mainstream batsmen are desperately struggling for runs, their bowlers will invariably find themselves burdened with extra responsibility and pressure — like they did on the second day of the Lord’s Test.

Resuming their first innings at a commanding position of 276/3 on Friday, India lost 7 wickets for just 88 runs in a batting collapse to be bundled out for 364 — in an innings where they were set for a total in excess of 400. The pitch must not be blamed at all. India’s opening pair added 126. KL Rahul scored 129. Rohit Sharma made 83. Virat Kohli scored 42. The pitch cannot be blamed for Ajinkya Rahane making 1, or, Cheteshwar Pujara scoring 9. 

The home team batsmen are under tremendous pressure but that does not mean that they cannot stage fight-backs. Dom Sibley once again fell in the trap of playing a wide delivery towards midwicket but Rory Burns and most importantly, England captain Joe Root, showed how comfortable it is to bat on this pitch. 

Burns was unfortunate to have missed out on his half century — a well deserving one — by only one run when Mohammed Shami pinned him in front of the wickets towards the ending stages of the contest. But by then, Burns, who faced 136 deliveries in his remarkable vigil, had made 49 runs for himself and put on 85 for the third wicket along with his captain.

Root, once again, not surprisingly, held England together and reached 48 not out having notched up scores of 64 and 109 in the previous two innings at Trent Bridge. 

Root, once again, showed his class and pedigree to go past England batting legend Graham Gooch in the list of highest run getters for his country, and he is now only around 3,500 runs away from going past Sir Alastair Cook to create history.

If India do not find a way to stop runs coming off Root’s bat  — like they did against Smith and Labuschagne — and prevent him from forging crucial partnerships, it may get extremely difficult for Virat Kohli and Co to record a victory against a team without plenty of its superstars in its own backyard.

Root has already brought up 2,000 Test runs against India and if he goes on scoring like he has, he will go past Cook’s tally of most runs for any Englishman against India easily. 

England are 245 runs away from India’s first innings total and Root holds the key. The longer he bats, the closer England will be to India’s total, which means that the visitors will have to do all the handwork of getting runs once again. 

The day, however, belonged to James Anderson as much as it did to Root & Co. Having snaffled the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara on the first day, Anderson added three more including that of Ajinkya Rahane (1) to record yet another five-wicket haul at Lord’s and take his overall tally to 30 wickets at the ‘home of cricket’ against India.