The Anderson-Tendulkar trophy is more than halfway done. The looming questions that people had about a new Indian side and how they will fare against Bazball at home have been answered to some extent. There has been fantastic cricket played by both sides upto this point in the series. This is a report of the test series, three matches in and a look at what each of these teams has done well and poorly through the three test matches.
First Test: Headingley
The first test was played on a pitch that heavily favored batting, on which batting got easier as the match progressed. Both teams fared pretty equally, with exceptional batting by England in the fourth innings, which sealed the game.
India’s Recap
India fared well with the bat throughout the game owing to Rishabh Pant’s twin tons. There were three other centurions from India. The lower middle order and the tail were blown out by England in both innings with lower-order collapses.
India’s bowling looked toothless other than Jasprit Bumrah and they couldn’t get the tail out efficiently, leaking runs to England’s lower order. The lack of support for Bumrah can be traced to the mismanagement of bowling resources by the Indian team, as Shardul Thakur, who is predominantly a swing bowler, was barely bowled when the ball was new.
England’s Recap
With the bat, England was plagued only by Jasprit Bumrah in the first innings. While India’s batting was top-order intensive, with England the entire batting order pitched in with useful runs to bring up a par total in the first innings. The second innings saw them pull off their second biggest chase smoothly, in classic Bazball fashion.
With the ball, England failed to make early inroads in both innings. Stokes was their best bowler by far, but Josh Tongue wiped off the tail efficiently in both innings, which helped England keep India to a manageable total that they could chase down.
Second Test: Edgbaston
The second test continued the trend of flat pitches in the series. Shubman Gill touched new heights in this test match and Akash Deep took 4 wickets in the first and 6 in the second, for a match total of 10 wickets.
Indian Team Performance
India’s batting continued to dominate England’s bowling in this match. Shubman Gill notched up 269 in the first innings and 161 in the second innings, almost batting England out single-handedly. The new Indian top order had proved that they were more than adept at making large scores and batting out test matches.
With the ball, India was the superior team in every count in this test match. In both innings, India bowled well with the new ball, making cracks in the England batting lineup. The pitch offered no help to the bowlers other than with the new ball, and even without Bumrah, India, helped by Akash Deep and Siraj, sealed the deal by knocking out England for 271 in the fourth innings.
England Team Performance
The only thing that worked out for England’s batting was Harry Brook and Jamie Smith in the first innings with their 303-run stand, which rescued England from an early collapse. Jamie Smith also hit an impressive 88 in the second innings for England. It was a poor showing for the English batsmen as they failed to counteract the Indian new ball bowling attack between Siraj and Akash Deep.
England failed to contain India’s run-scoring fest with the ball and looked almost clueless on how to get wickets on the flat pitch of Edgbaston. The English bowling attack in both of the tests didn’t have any answers against the Indian top order, and with India bolstering their lower order in the second test, England failed to blow off the tail as well.
Third test: Lords
The third test at Lords was by far the closest affair in the series. It was the narrowest margin by which England has won at Lords, which was a thriller on a slow, dying pitch at Lords where both scoring quickly and taking wickets proved to be tough.
India’s Performance
In the first innings, Rahul and Pant’s partnership was looking to take the match away from England when a lapse in concentration before lunch led to Pant being run out with him trying to ensure KL Rahul got to his 100 before lunch. Shortly after, KL Rahul was also dismissed on 100. These two dismissals proved to be crucial for England, as they had manufactured two important wickets that restricted India to 387 in the first innings. Jadeja also added valuable runs after Rahul and Pant’s partnership was broken by the runout.
The second innings was lost by India in two sessions, the last session of day 4 and the first session of day 5. Two collapses in two sessions led to India being 82-7 in the first session. Although Jadeja tried to salvage India’s innings, it proved to be too tough a task for the tailenders to chase down 193 in the fourth innings.
India’s bowling effort combined with the pitch forced England to score slowly (the slowest run rate in their Bazball era); Bumrah’s five-for restricted England to 387. The second innings saw the rest of the Indian bowling attack finally support Bumrah, with Washington’s standout spell taking 4 wickets on a dying pitch and restricting England to 192.
England’s Performance
England perfectly adapted to the conditions of the match and slowed down their Bazball approach accordingly. Joe Root brought up a brilliantly paced century to bring up a par total for England. Jamie Smith brought up another 50, continuing his brilliant run of form.
In the bowling department, Stokes walked through fire to bring England home in the Lord’s test, while a returning Jofra proved to be his partner in crime, along with a brilliant spell by Carse late in Day 4, all of which contributed to England winning the third test by a narrow margin. England’s bowling looked better in this test than over the entire series thus far; it remains to be seen whether they can keep up this bowling form over the next two matches.
Final Words
The stage is set for a scintillating finish to this test series, with the scoreline being a close 2-1. Will India bounce back and claim a rare away series win, or will England take advantage of their lead and close out the series in their favor? The entire cricketing world waits for these answers as we wait for the last 2 tests of this fantastic test series.
Annsly Raena 
Tanya Singh