IND vs ENG, 3rd Test Match, Day 1: Nitish Reddy Strikes as England Stumble at Lord’s

A double-wicket burst from debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy jolts England’s openers, as both sides brace for battle on the iconic slope of Lord’s. <strong>Karan Pradhan</strong> reports.

Man of the moment: Nitish Kumar Reddy. Photo via BCCI

Published during the lunch break in the UK, #MidMatchMemo delivers sharp analysis from the first session of play — and picks up where we left off the previous day.

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THERE’S SOMETHING TO BE SAID about Indian medium-pacers and their knack for chipping in with useful wickets at Lord’s. In 1990, it was Sanjeev Sharma. In 1996, it was Sourav Ganguly and in 2025, the honour went to Nitish Kumar Reddy. Introduced into the attack right after the drinks break (14th over), Reddy not only broke the opening partnership of 43 runs by dismissing Ben Duckett, but also removed his partner Zak Crawley in the same over. Forty-three runs might not seem like much, particularly in the context of this high-scoring series (more on that later), but it’s worth noting that those runs came after the English openers had weathered a fairly torrid first hour.

Earlier in the day, England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and surprised everyone (well, those familiar with the hosts’ recent decision-making anyway) by electing to bat first. And the move almost backfired instantly. Off the fourth ball of the day, Duckett feathered a swinging Bumrah delivery that fell agonisingly short of Indian wicketkeeper’s Rishabh Pant’s gloves. A few swings and misses followed, a handful of balls shaped back sharply into batters and there were a couple of close LBW shouts. However, the openers stuck around resolutely, if not entirely convincingly, until the drinks interval and appeared well-set.

With Duckett in good nick (with a match-winning 149 in the Headingley Test to his name) and Crawley in decent if unremarkable form, the duo was threatening to settle into a rhythm. As anyone who watched them compile a 188-run partnership in the second innings of the first Test, this is a pair that rides its luck and is fully capable of punishing the opposition. Which is why it was extremely important for them to be dismissed before they could make too much of an impact, and Reddy was the man to do the needful.

By lunch, England had reached 83/2 with Ollie Pope and Joe Root quietly going about their business and almost equalling the opening partnership. Of concern for India will be how swiftly England’s Numbers 3 and 4 got into the tempo of the game and looked completely at ease at the crease. As a matter of fact, the likeliest mode of dismissal for either of them appeared to be a run out, considering how uncertain and tentative some of the decision-making (when it came to running) was.

Another concern for the visitors, at least during the opening hour of the Test, was gauging the carry of the Lord’s pitch. After the Duckett edge that failed to carry, Shubman Gill grassed a half-chance in the gully region off Pope’s first ball. A single step closer and he’d probably have had a better chance at pouching it. Shortly after, a pumped-up Reddy got Pope to edge an outswinger that fell short of KL Rahul in the slip cordon. Over the course of the morning session, the visitors seemed to have calibrated their positions vis-à-vis the ball’s behaviour off the pitch. However, one can’t help imagine how different the scorecard would’ve looked had the balls carried to Pant, Gill and Rahul.

Most of the chatter around the buildup to the third Test pitched the match at Lord’s as a battle between Bumrah and Jofra Archer. The former was famously returning to the Indian XI after sitting out the previous Test in order to manage his workload. And the latter was returning to the England Test side after over four years. The return of bowling firepower to the arsenal of both sides was a welcome sight after the batting-dominated Headingley and Edgbaston Tests that produced 1,673 and 1,692 runs respectively.

It’s safe to say that the conditions thus far (not to mention the supposedly soft Dukes ball) in the series have been more helpful to the batters than bowlers. But all that was going to change after the teams arrived in London, and specifically at Lord’s. With its 8-foot 2-inch slope from one side of the ground to the other, this has long been considered a happy hunting ground for quicker bowlers. In other words, the stage was set for a perfect set of comebacks (wildly different circumstances notwithstanding) for Bumrah and Archer.

After a thumping series-squaring win at Edgbaston, India headed into the third Test riding high on a wave of momentum. Not only had the visitors won a Test match in Birmingham for the first time, but they’d achieved the feat without Bumrah, their bowling spearhead. This included the act of claiming six English wickets for a duck each in the first innings. Standing in India’s way though is its history at the ‘home of cricket’. In 19 matches at the venue, the visitors’ track record doesn’t make for great reading: Three wins, 12 losses and four draws. But the hosts can’t afford to take that record for granted either, because the most recent of those wins came the last time these two teams played at the venue back in 2021.

The other big talking point was newly-minted Indian captain Gill’s imperious form and the threat he poses to two long-standing records. With 771 runs, Sunil Gavaskar holds the record for highest series aggregate by an Indian batter (1970/71 tour of the West Indies), while Sir Donald Bradman’s 95-year-old tally of 974 runs (1930 Ashes) remains the highest by any batter. With three matches yet to be completed, Gill already has 565 runs under his belt and barring something quite drastic, should overhaul those records before the completion of The Oval Test next month. His priority, however, will be to ensure India wrests the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy (formerly Pataudi Trophy) from England for the first time since 2007.

Karan Pradhan is editor-in-chief of Story Mode a gaming and gaming-adjacent magazine. Follow him on X/Twitter @karanpradhan_

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