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India's batter Ravindra Jadeja celebrates his half century during the third day of the third Test match between India and England, at the Lord's Cricket Ground, in London, Saturday, July 12, 2025. (PTI Photo)
Had it not been for his helmet grill, Nitish Kumar Reddy would have gotten a bloodied face courtesy a wicked Ben Stokes bouncer. Shoaib Bashir had to retire to the dressing room when a Ravindra Jadeja straight drive smashed his little finger. Jofra Archer would constantly aim his nasty 150 kph bouncers at the batsmen’s head and on his follow through give a mean stare. And then there was Jadeja twirling his bat like a swordsman, showing the rivals the dexterity of his wrist and the sharpness of his blade.
It was a battle out there at Lord’s on the third day, with the series tied at 1-1 and nothing separating the teams in the third Test. India, like England, finished their innings on 387. There was no lead, no deficit. Before stumps, England had to play just one over and they finished 2/0. This was to be the moving day; it ended up as a day when the teams constantly had a go at each other to inch ahead in the game. None succeeded.
The fierceness of the contest lasted till the final moments. Zak Crawley tried all tricks to ensure that England had to face just one over. He sent Jasprit Bumrah back to his mark at least thrice – taking his sweet time to take guard or saying there was some movement in front of the sight screen. When a ball barely touched his fingertips, he called for the physio. This almost triggered a bar brawl with India’s entire slip cordon and Mohammed Siraj circling Crawley. The physio left the field after barely 5 seconds. Tempers flared, the umpires were trying to play negotiators. This was just a temporary ceasefire; the hostilities will commence again on Sunday.
Shubman Gill & Co. didn’t come to be played around, 𝙠𝙮𝙪𝙣𝙠𝙞 𝙔𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙝𝙣𝙚 𝙣𝙖𝙝𝙞, 𝙨𝙞𝙠𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙖𝙮𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙞𝙣!#ENGvIND 👉 3rd TEST, DAY 4 | SUN 13th JULY, 2:30 PM | Streaming on JioHotstar pic.twitter.com/ix13r7vtja
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 12, 2025
India was fighting tooth and Rishabh Pant’s injured nail. KL Rahul and Pant blunted England’s attack in the first session, before the latter’s untimely run out. After that, Jadeja took charge in the company of two all-rounders – Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar – who justified the team management’s decision to pick them over the specialist spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
India’s batting valour in the second session was the story of the day. That was the period when England’s pace bowling was probably at its sharpest in the Test. Archer was firing every ball at around 145 kph or more. Playing a Test after four-and-a-half years, he was bending his back, exhaling the reb-ball bowling trapped inside him for long. He was making the ball jump at Indian batsmen from a good length. Probably showing the best bowling rhythm of the series so far, Stokes too was banging the ball short and getting seam movement.
The 22 yards at Lord’s wasn’t a ‘safe zone’ for the batsmen. It needed skills and courage to survive. Reddy and Jadeja showed both. If not for them India would have conceded a bigger lead and had they not held their own against Archer and Stokes, England would have got more time in the game to bat and put pressure on India, who are to bat last.
They played like frontline batsmen quite used to playing the new ball. Reddy would ride on the rising ball and make it drop to his legs. He did the good old duck, he would weave away from the line. In between, he would get hit on his gloves or rib cage. And Stokes would get that one ball to hit the visor. Despite the protection, his cheek would feel the impact of the blow. There was tension in the air as the Indian support staff ran onto the field. The sight of Reddy nursing his wound with an ice pack showed the injury was not as bad as it looked.
Third consecutive fifty for @royalnavghan ⚔
89 at Edgbaston
69* at Edgbaston
50* at Lord's
He is proving why #TeamIndia 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘩𝘯𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘩𝘪, 𝘴𝘪𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘢𝘺𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘯! 💪#ENGvIND 👉 3rd TEST, DAY 3 | LIVE NOW on JioHotstar 👉 https://t.co/YhqadvE3Be pic.twitter.com/62nrv8yJDO
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) July 12, 2025
Jadeja seemed more skilled at taking on the pacers. He was quick to judge the length of the short balls and leave them. He swayed away from the line, keeping his eyes on the ball all the time. One shouldn’t be surprised with Jadeja’s ability to deal with bouncers. At one point, when Jadeja used to play domestic cricket regularly, there was a running joke in the Saurashtra dressing room about the all-rounder’s obsession with short-balls. During training and even on match days, Jadeja would ask the coaches to hurl short balls at him. He would either pull them, defend them, or sway away. He would even ask his teammates to give him short-ball practice. As Jadeja was going through the drill after a game, a player joked with him: “So this would be the 10,000th short-ball you have faced. Isn’t it?”. Jadeja would smile and ask him to head to the team bus.
One of Jadeja’s teammates from that time is India’s batting coach these days. Sitanshu Kotak spends long hours with him at the nets. Short-ball training is a major part of his routine. They also spend a lot of time talking about cricket. Just before the England tour, Jadeja spoke of the bond he shares with Kotak. This was on a podcast with R Ashwin. He opened up when Ashwin asked him who is a friend he wouldn’t think twice to call even at 2 am. “I will say Kotak. He talks with maturity, he talks about cricket and he doesn’t do ‘faltu’ talk. He also doesn’t do that ‘feel good’ talk,” he said. This wasn’t a day when ‘feel good’ talk would have worked, this was a day of blood and bruises. And Jadeja was war-ready.
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