Jumpy, edgy and ugly England’s batsmen make heavy weather of Lord’s conditions
The Lord’s whodunit is easy to crack. It isn’t the weather, it’s the batsmen. (AP Photo)
Dry summer is given as the official reason for the unusually benign pitches in the first two Tests of this series. The heavy weather the England players make of batting on challenging tracks could be a real reason for the changed conditions in these parts. Day 4 of the Lord’s Test could be an important exhibit if ever an inquest of the pitches is laid out after this series.
In the morning, when Jasprit Bumrah, bowling from the Nursery End, got the ball to take off from a patch outside off-side and Mohammed Siraj had finally got the hang of using the slope from the Pavilion End, England’s Bazballers were like one-dimensional batsmen on a hot-tin pitch. Not equipped to play the waiting game, they were jumpy, edgy and ugly. They got injured not because they were putting their body on line, they got blows to their bodies as they didn’t know how to defend the ball.
