India vs England : Visitors have their task cut out despite Bumrah's heroics

London: The irrepressible Jasprit Bumrah etched his name on the famous Honours Board at the ‘Home of Cricket’ but India found themselves with a lot of fighting to do against a disciplined England as the third Test picked up pace on a surface that continued to remain sluggish here on Friday.

Having missed the opportunity in his previous Test at Lord’s in 2021 where he could only manage three wickets and was completely overshadowed by Mohammed Siraj in the famous 151-run, Bumrah, who looked off colour on Thursday, meant business right from the first ball he delivered on the second day. The 31-year-old was at his mesmerising best on a blistering hot day, bagging 5/74 to dismiss England for 387 in 112.3 overs about an hour before tea.

The Indian batters then had their task cut out on a pitch where stroke-making was hard if the bowlers stuck to good old-fashioned wicket-to-wicket bowling. India did that exceptionally for most of the day and a half, stifling England and forcing them to abandon their high-octane ‘Bazball’ and deploy a highly defensive game. The wickets didn’t come for India on Day 1 but they did on the second and England adopted a similar approach.

It was going to be a tough grind, similar to batting on slow surfaces at home, and it only became tougher after the in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal departed to a beauty from the returning Jofra Archer in the second over of the day. But Karun Nair (40) and KL Rahul (53 batting) nicely steadied the ship with a fine 61-run stand for the second wicket. The two Karnataka batters, who have forged many a match-winning partnership for the state side, barely put a foot wrong as they went about their job without much discomfort.

However, good fortune continued to elude Nair. Like his previous three innings, he stroked the ball superbly, and when he was out in the middle, he looked far better than his friend. Then, out of nowhere, Joe Root plucked a stunning one-handed catch at slip to dismiss Nair, that had the right-hander utterly shocked. Captain Shubman Gill, who has been in Bradmanesque form this series, failed for the first time, and at 107/3, India looked in a spot of bother. But Rahul, who scored a century in the 2021 Test, and Rishabh Pant (19 not out), batting with pain after hurting his left index finger on the opening day, soldiered on to take India to stumps at 145/3 in 43 overs.

The day, though, belonged to Bumrah. With England resuming on 251/4 with Root unbeaten on 99 and having successfully defied India with their defensive batting, the visitors needed an inspirational performance from someone, and Bumrah provided that. He first cleaned England skipper Ben Stokes, battling poor form but who looked in good touch the previous evening, in his second ball of the day — which was the second over of the morning.

Bumrah then dealt a double blow on England to leave them reeling at 271/1. He first crashed through the defences of Root (104), who had just gotten to his 37th Test century in the first over of the day, with a peach. The former England skipper was a tad late to a full-length delivery, and he ended up inside-edging onto his middle stump. Woakes followed Root to the dug out the very next ball as Bumrah looked like cleaning up England quickly, his first spell reading 5-1-23-3.

England then hit back strongly through an 84-run stand off 114 balls for the eighth wicket from Jamie Smith (51) and Brydon Carse (56). Smith, dropped on 5 by Rahul, and Carse appeared to hurt India badly but the visitors managed to hold their composure to skittle them out for less than 400.