Joe Root, England skipper expressed excitement about playing a Test match at Lord’s ahead of the second game against India on Thursday. The first Test between India and England ended in a draw after rain played spoilsport on the final day of the match.
Joe Root on Wednesday shared a picture of him walking out of the ground after training ahead of the “big week”.
Joe Root Feels Special To Play Tests At Lord’s
Joe Root top-scored in both the innings and held England’s innings together to keep their heads above water. The 30-year old scored 64 out of England’s 183 runs in the first innings, followed by a hundred under pressure in the second to leave 209 for India to chase.
Joe Root, who had failed to reach half-century in his last five Tests, ended up scoring 64 in the first innings and then came up with a masterful 109 helping England put up a much-improved batting show in their 2nd innings.
“Always special to play a Test match at Lord’s. Big week ahead,” Joe Root tweeted.
Neither Cheteshwar Pujara nor Ajinkya Rahane scored runs in the first innings of the first Test. Add to that, Virat Kohli is also undergoing a dry spell, recording yet another duck in Test cricket.
There are reports that Shardul Thakur has a niggle and if he’s unfit, that opens the door for Ravichandran Ashwin’s inclusion. However, that means India playing with two spinners and three pacers. Should they opt for a specialist batter, there will be a toss-up between Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin then.
Stuart Broad Ruled Out Of The Remaining Tests
Meanwhile, England’s fast bowler Stuart Broad has been ruled out of the entire Test series against India.
The seamer has sustained a tear to his right calf. He underwent an MRI scan in London on Wednesday lunchtime, which revealed a tear. Stuart Broad sustained the injury during the warm-up on Tuesday afternoon at Lord’s.
Moreover, England and India on Wednesday were fined 40 per cent of their match fees and also penalized two ICC World Test Championship (WTC) points each for maintaining slow over-rates in the first Test in Nottingham.
“As a team, we are not pleased that we lost those two points because of the slow over-rate. That factor is in our control, we made up a few overs and we were just short by two overs in the end,” said Kohli during a virtual press conference.
“Basically, we have to keep up with the pace of the game. You do not want to be too far behind in the game that you are not able to make up overs. As you said, points are very very crucial,” he added.
Chris Broad of the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanctions after both sides were ruled to be two overs short of their targets after time allowances were taken into consideration.
Saqib Mahmood, who impressed for England’s white-ball squad in the recent series against Pakistan, has been added as an injury cover as pacer James Anderson is also nursing an injury. Moeen Ali is expected to return to the side to provide England with a spin option, while Mark Wood – unused in the first Test – is likely to join Ollie Robinson among the frontline seamers, with Sam Curran potentially retained in a more conventional allrounder’s role.
India predicted 11: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma/Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
England predicted 11: Rory Burns/Haseeb Hameed, Dom Sibley, Moeen Ali, Joe Root(c), Jonny Bairstow, Dan Lawrence, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Craig Overton/ Saqib Mahmood