England ended day one on 251/4 in second Test at Lord's against India.
Former India spinner R Ashwin made fun of England’s cautious batting strategy on day one of the third Test against India at Lord’s on July 10. He stated that England betrayed its fans by abandoning their aggressive ‘Bazball’ way of batting and instead playing conventional Test cricket, which Ashwin dubbed as ‘Prankball’.
Ben Stokes surprised everyone by choosing to bat first after winning the toss at Lord's, and England's batting completely ditched their Bazball way and took up a more restricted and composed approach, dishing out a more traditional Test match batting display.
Joe Root remained unbeaten on 99, while Ben Stokes made 39* as England ended day one on 251/4.
Ravichandran Ashwin, the former spinner for India, was happy to see this opportunity in England and gave Root the credit he deserved. Root is just one run away from reaching his eighth Test century at Lord's after reaching 3000 runs against India.
"It was a great day for England. Everyone believed England was going to continue with Bazball, but they betrayed everyone by playing Prankball instead. They usually score at a net run rate of 4, 4.5 an over, but today was different. England were going at three runs an over. I had previously discussed that Joe Root scoring runs is very important for the team. Commeth the man, Commeth the hour. His innings was a lesson in how Test cricket needs to be played. Root is back," Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
At the Mecca of Cricket, England has produced another belter, but this time they are batting first. However, the Indian bowlers had a lot of swing, which made it difficult for England to get runs.
Nevertheless, Ashwin believes that the Lord's surface will play some tricks as the Test match goes on. For this reason, the champion spinner has advised Shubman Gill and the team to knock England out as soon as possible to prevent India from being the victim of it.
“If you look at this pitch, it possesses some sub-continent tendencies. The ball usually softens up after 60 overs, but if you look at Ravindra Jadeja, one back of a length delivery hit Joe Root’s bat very low. Now, this on Day 1 at Lord’s is quite a contrast to the conditions that you expect in England. The up and bounce at Lord’s was always going to be a concern, and we saw that when Nitish Reddy picked up two wickets and also had Ben Stokes in trouble momentarily,” added Ashwin.
“There is contrasting bounce and variable pace on this pitch. If I were India, I would be telling the bowler to roll them out in the first session tomorrow. Can they keep England below 350? Because the longer England play, this surface is going to play tricks,” he signed off.
Nitish Kumar Reddy picked two wickets, while Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja picked one wicket each.