London, India who lost their first Test at Edgbaston against hosts England by 31 runs, skipper Virat Kohli and Co will be hoping to bounce back at Lord’s on Thursday in the second Test of the five-match series.
In both camps there were positives – Kohli’s 149 and 51 in the game, R Ashwin’s seven wickets in the match and Ishant Sharma’s five-wicket haul in the second innings for India, and Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow’s half-centuries, Sam Curran’s all-round Player of the Match performance (87/5) and Ben Stokes’ match-winning spell on the fourth day for England.
While England have the momentum and the advantage of playing at home, they will be aware that India ran them close in Birmingham and are capable of doing the same at Lord’s, a venue where they won their last encounter, in 2014.
A low-scoring match at Edgbaston meant batsmen on both sides had to counter some quality swing bowling, and barring Kohli, Root, Bairstow and Curran, not many could play a knock of significance.
The most important of these, perhaps, was Curran’s match-turning 65-ball 63 in the second innings, after having come in at 86/6 (effectively 100/7 with the first-innings lead) and England in a spot.
England finished on 180, setting India 194 to win – a chaseable target by all means – but the Indian batsmen faltered against some high-quality swing bowling and were bowled out for 162. The next highest score after Kohli’s 51 was Hardik Pandya’s 31.
