Former England pacer Stuart Broad and limited-overs wicket-keeper Jos Buttler felt that India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar invited trouble with their on-field antics on days three and four during the Lord’s Test that eventually ended in heartbreak for the visitors.
The 22-run defeat came after India off-spinner Sundar sounded confident of his side’s win prior to the final day’s play. Despite losing four wickets in a 193-run chase in a short burst before stumps on the penultimate day where he picked up four English wickets, Sundar said that India would wrap up the victory by Lunch on the fifth day.
“Definitely India winning, probably just after lunch…,” Washington had told Sky Sports.
“We are sitting pretty and we will come out positive. We have some solid batters in the dressing room.
“We have all day but there needs to be the perfect plan. It is exciting in every way. Winning the Lord’s Test would be amazing.”
The Tamil Nadu spinner’s words would come back to bite him as a collective English unit led by Jofra Archer and captain Ben Stokes would reduce them to their second-narrowest defeat away from home by 22 runs. Walking in at 7, the left-handed Sundar fell for a duck as Archer completed a splendid catch of his own bowling.
You cannot do that Jofra Archer!
Out of this world 😱 pic.twitter.com/mGNpgKPphl
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 14, 2025
“There’s a little clip of when Washington came out to bat and (Brendon) McCullum over the balcony, sort of you know telling everyone to raise it, it’s the guy who’s been chirping. You set yourself up, don’t you? It’s horrible. But you’re like, no, everyone’s all over me. I could have just come out here and tried to, you know, have a good game and try my best,” said Buttler on the For the Love of Cricket podcast.
“But now everyone knows that what I’ve said in the media last night, and this is going to be, everyone’s after me. Even McCullum, possibly the only time he didn’t have his feet up. He’s leant forward to say, come on. Let’s ramp it up for this guy.” Buttler said the simple pep talk for England would have involved watching a replay of Sundar’s interview.
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“I wonder if he’s just sort of, you know, got his words out wrong, you know, hopefully we’ll win. But it was the proper incredible confidence. Yeah, we’re going to win. Someone will have heard about that in the dressing room. It’s almost like instead of anyone having to say anything this morning for England you could have just played that interview and that would have got people so fired up,” said Buttler.
Nitish meets England’s ‘fire with fire’ attitude
Meanwhile, veteran Broad also picked up on how all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy faced a fiery spell from the English bowlers, led by the searing Archer as he came out to bat with India reeling at 82 for seven post Sundar’s dismissal. Broad revealed that the fiery six-minute exchange between the Indian fielders and England openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, spurred the home team on, with Nitish becoming a primary target after his vocal presence in the slips.
Broad relayed Archer’s revelation that it was a team plan to meet with ‘fire with fire’ after incident involving Crawley on Day 3.
“Jofra bowled quick, bowled his fastest spell in England shirt, up the hill at the nursery end, flying through at 92 mile an hour. I said, ‘God, I’ve never seen you like as fired up as that.’ And he said, actually, it was a team plan. They’ve (India) had a go at Zach Crawley. We’ve got to meet fire with fire here.
‘(Rishabh) Pant’s dismissal was my favourite, but he bounced Reddy first ball and everyone came in. Duckett, (Harry) Brook, (Joe) Rooty, getting stuck into Reddy because reports came back from the middle when Crawley and Duckett were out there that Reddy was the most vocal,” said Broad.
