- Sunday, April 06, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE weather gods continued to dominate the ongoing England-India Test series as the first day of the second Test at Lord’s was disrupted by downpours. Early lunch was taken after India reached 46 for no loss after 18.4 overs after England captain Joe Root won the toss and sent the visitors to bat first.
The Indian openers – Rohit Sharma (35 not out off 66) and KL Rahul (10 not out off 46) – did the hard work of surviving the early challenges posed by seamers James Anderson and Ollie Robinson, who shared nine wickets between them in the first innings of the first Test at Trent Bridge. Sharma went after third seamer Sam Curran after settling. The duo put on 97 runs for the first wicket in the only innings that India batted in Nottingham to give their team a good platform to take a lead over the hosts after they were bowled out for 183.
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While India made one change to their playing XI by bringing back veteran speedster Ishant Sharma in place of an injured Shardul Thakur, the home team made as many as three changes. Young batsman Haseeb Hameed replaced Zak Crawley, bowler Mark Wood came in for an injured Stuart Broad and all-rounder Moeen Ali was called in place of batsman Dan Lawrence.
The first Test was drawn despite the two teams putting up a competitive fight as rain washed out a promising final day when India required 157 runs to win with nine wickets in hand.
