India vs England: History against Virat Kohli and co. at Lord’s, but hosts too have cause for concern

The Indian cricket team had a less than ideal start to their five-match series against England as the visitors were defeated by 31 runs at Edgbaston.

Although Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma produced valiant efforts with the ball, the batsmen were unable to live up to their reputations and with the exception of skipper Virat Kohli, most of them struggled against the disciplined England pacers.

Next up in the Indian cricket team’s itinerary is the ‘home of cricket’ – Lord’s – where they will face England in the second Test match on Thursday.

However, history is not on India’s side when it comes to the head-to-head record at the venue and it will once again be an uphill task for Virat Kohli & Co.

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Till now, India have played 17 Test matches at Lord’s, winning twice, drawing four times, and losing the rest. India attained Test status in 1932 and played their very first Test match in London, at Lord’s but there was no fairytale ending for the visiting team as they were defeated by 158 runs.

Individual glory

While the team has struggled to win Test matches at Lord’s, the venue has been lucky for a number of Indian cricketers.

Dilip Vengsarkar has the best record when it comes to Indian batsmen at Lord’s 508 runs from 4 matches including three centuries and one half-century.

In 1986, Vengsarkar continued his love affair with Lord’s as he stroked his way to an unbeaten 126, his third century at the venue, as India took a crucial 47-run lead against the hosts and Kapil Dev followed it up with a devastating bowling performance to guide India to their first ever Test win at the venue.

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This was also the same venue which introduced two Indian stalwarts – Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid – to the international arena. Ganguly and Dravid made their Test debuts at Lord’s in 1996, scoring 131 and 95 respectively, but wicketkeeper Jack Russell’s century meant that the encounter ended in a draw.

India’s second win at the venue came in 2014 when Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar proved to be the match-winners for the visitors.

Rahane scored 103 in the first innings to take India to 295 and a six-wicket haul from Bhuvneshwar meant that India registered their first win at Lord’s since 1986.

England’s record

When it comes to the hosts’ record at the venue, it has not been a pretty picture in the last decade. Out of the 21 matches England have played since 2011, they have won just 11.

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The record gets worse when we consider the last five matches as they have won just two of them with their last match against Pakistan in May this year ending in a 9-wicket loss for the hosts.

On the individual front, there are some players in the current England squad with stellar records at the venue. Alastair Cook is the second-highest run-scorer ever at Lord’s with 1916 runs from 25 matches while current skipper Joe Root has scored 1123 runs with the help of three centuries and five fifties.

The pace duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad are also no strangers to the venue as they are the top two wicket-takers ever at the ‘home of cricket’.

Anderson has taken 94 wickets from 22 matches at an impressive economy rate of 2.74 while his partner – Broad – has claimed 78 wickets from 20 matches.

First Published: Aug 07, 2018 08:53 IST