India vs England: Day 3 in Rajkot was a case of Bazball gone overboard, could perhaps cost Stokes’ men the series | Cricket News

It’s admirable that Bazball hasn’t had more days like the third day in Rajkot. When they go overboard with their intent, dim their game awareness, and waste a great opportunity to seize an unshakeable grip on the match. Joe Root reverse-lapped Jasprit Bumrah to slip, while Ben Stokes slog-swept to long-on and handed the initiative back to a Ashwin-less India. Instead of a handy lead, they were shot out for 319 in their first innings to trail 126 before India extended the lead to 322 stumps.During the chase in Vizag, too, England had overcooked, with Root falling for an unadulterated slog and Ollie Pope more than keen to len to his attacking urges – but the English camp can offer understandable rationale for it. The ball was turning on a bruised pitch, and they might have felt all-out attack was the way to go. Here, though, if they had played a session at their regular pace – which is already frenetic enough – they could have had India pulling out their hair without Ashwin to turn to.
Since these implosions haven’t happened frequently and their success rate is stellar, not much hand-wringing will occur, understandably. It will be left to Geoffrey Boycotts of the world to sigh and rant, but the rest of the English cricket ecosystem, their fans in particular, clearly love the new approach too much to sigh at odd slip-ups. However, this Saturday afternoon can cost them the series, if India step up with their bowling in the chase.

Root’s record against Bumrah isn’t flash (dismissed eight times before the game), and the Day 3 track was perfect for a cracking return to form. But he opted for the reverse-lap on a pitch that didn’t have much bounce and had begun to play slow and keep a touch low on occasions. It still needed sharp reflexes to grab the chance and Yashasvi Jaiswal did so on second attempt at second slip.
Root’s wicket brought on another almost immediately as Jonny Bairstow continued his barren run this series, unable to bring his bat remotely close to the line of a ripping leg-break from Kuldeep Yadav that trapped him in front to leave England at 225 for 4.
The big blow came at 260 when Ben Duckett reached out to a wide long hop outside off from Yadav to carve it to a delighted Gill at cover. Yadav was cock-a-hoop and would go on to finish his pre-lunch spell that read 12-1-35-2.
Rajkot: England’s Ben Duckett plays a shot during the 3rd day of the 3rd cricket test match between India and England, at Niranjan Shah Stadium, in Rajkot, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024. (PTI Photo/Kunal Patil)
England recovered to reach 299 with five wickets intact with a 39-run partnership brewing between Stokes and Ben Foakes, but Ravindra Jadeja intervened with a bit of help from England’s captain.
Bumrah was stationed half-way to the boundary at long-on and Jadeja was on from round the stumps. Cleverly, though, he kept changing his angles and lengths, and though Stokes thought the slog-sweep to wide long-on was on, Jadeja had slid that ball further outside off. And so Stokes found himself with too much to do to drag the ball back from that angle, and ended up slicing it to Bumrah.
Learning from the opposition
Rohit not only had Stokes-like fields on occasions but also guided his bowlers. Mohammed Siraj wasn’t on song in the first session, and Rohit had a lengthy chat with him and posted a specific field for him – two short midwickets and a square-le. It seemed to give Siraj direction and purpose and he began to use the shiny side of the seam to start tailing the ball in.
Post lunch, he struck gold, taking out Foakes with a ball that shaped in and perhaps stopped a touch on the batsman, who check-pushed it to mid-on. Siraj then produced a yorker to nail the off-stump of Rehan Ahmed before finishing the innings bowling James Anderson.
Though India lost Rohit Sharma relatively early, failing to connect with a sweep and trapped LBW Root, Jaiswal, who had started slowly, erupted midway in the final session to swell India’s lead.

Jaisball supremacy 💯 🙌
Yashasvi Jaiswal 😍 scores another mighty ton in the #IDFCFirstBankTestSeries! ⚡️#INDvENG #JioCinemaSports #BazBowled pic.twitter.com/FTufkA6YqJ
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) February 17, 2024
Giving him company, sedately for the most part, was Shubman Gill. The pressure on him is known. The pressure isn’t just due to lack of runs as his fans can point to his hundred at Vizag, but the manner of his dismissals – the iffy and slow weight transfer forward – have pointed to an uncorrected flaw. He let Jaiswal lead the way, followed his initial defensive approach and with the track offering slow turn, wasn’t tested as much. There were moments against Anderson and Mark Wood, with the ball tailing in with the shiny side, when Gill looked a touch out of his comfort zone, but nothing startling to fuss about as he showed near the end of the day, pulling and driving Wood for a six and a four.

There was a moment of concern though as Rajat Patidar found yet another bizarre way to get out, again checking his shot and this time, dragging a short ball from Tom Hartley to midwicket. He stood there dazed, perhaps at the realisation that his international career is alarmingly going pear-shaped through a combination of soft and bizarre dismissals.
India won’t fuss too much about the state of the game, but as they would have learned from England, one bad session can open the door for the opposition.