Lord's Test: Slowest team 100 at home in Bazball Era as hosts grind it out on opening day

Shaken by the huge 336-run loss to India in the second Test at Edgbaston, England took a different route on the opening day of the third Test at Lord's. Firstly, skipper Ben Stokes went against his natural strategy of opting to bowl and instead decided to bat at the toss on a sunny day. Then, his batters shed their ultra-aggressive methods and decided to adopt the conventional Test match tempo to grind it out against India's pacers on a pitch that looks considerably flat when compared to the deck dished out at Lord's for the WTC final.

However, there was just a bit in there with the new ball and the movement increased after the 10-over mark, something that the part-time seam option of Nitish Reddy exploited with aplomb. The all-rounder, in his very first over, removed both of England's well-set openers to give India some respite after a wicketless first hour. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, barring the odd burst of aggression, were largely circumspect in the way they dealt with the new-ball spells of Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep. The bowling was accurate too, but what was noticeable was England's determination to shed a more solid approach at the crease.

Whether Stokes' decision at the toss and the methods approached by the batters are an overreaction to the Edgbaston loss, only time will tell. However, it was a pragmatic strategy from the home side as the pitch should get easier to bat on later on in the game. Also, like in most grounds around England, overhead conditions play a huge part and the bright sunny conditions at Lord's meant that batting wasn't all that difficult. Seamers did get some variable bounce though, and subtle sideways movement but nothing extravagant was on show. After the dismissals of Duckett and Crawley, the duo of Ollie Pope and Joe Root dug in, to get their side past 100.

It took England 35.4 overs to get past the three-figure mark, their slowest in a home Test since the 'Bazball' regime took over. It was also the second slowest overall for England during this tenure, having taken 37.2 overs against the same opponent at Rajkot in 2024. The average innings run rate under Stokes-McCullum has been 4.63 runs-per-over, comfortably the best by any side during this period. However, England went at under 3 RPO at the 40-over mark, only the second instance (according to Cricbuzz) of them having such a run rate at the same time frame in the innings with the other instance coming in the fourth innings against New Zealand at the same venue in 2022.

Conditions definitely had a bit more help for the seamers when compared to Edgbaston, which explains England's defensive options but they are probably also setting up a foundation to change gears later on in the innings.

Bazball has often been criticised for being one-dimensional in their thinking and execution. In such a scenario, the efforts on the opening day at Lord's have come as a whiff of fresh air. It shows that England are reluctantly starting to make attempts to put on a more flexible tempo to their batting plans, especially if the pitches aren't outright docile.