After a good rest, Jasprit Bumrah immediately brought out an outside edge from opener Ben Duckett upon his return to the playing XI for the Lord's Test against England. It did, however, miss Rishabh Pant, the wicketkeeper, who dove low to his left. Since there wasn't much carry, Bumrah instructed Pant and the slip cordon to stand much closer right away. However, India paid the price as the words went unheeded.

"Aage aa ja, ball carry nahi kar raha hai, soft hai (Come forward, the ball is not carrying, it's soft)," Bumrah's words were captured by the stump mic immediately following the fourth ball of the opening innings in London, when India had an early chance to shake up England.

Nevertheless, the slip cordon ignored those remarks, and throughout the first morning of the third and most important Test match, India suffered the consequences of missed opportunities, particularly in the 14th over, when captain Shubman Gill dropped Ollie Pope at gully. Pope barely edged the fuller delivery from Nitish Kumar Reddy, and he was able to palm it down to the ground after taking a complete dive to his right.

In the following over, Pope just managed to outmaneuver the fuller one from Mohammed Siraj, but the ball landed just short of KL Rahul at second slip, allowing him to survive for the second time in three deliveries.

Had India learnt from its errors, England would have been three goals behind at the lunch break. However, after Nitish took two wickets in a single over, taking out Duckett and Zak Crawley as England was at 83 for two at lunch, the tourists were still the happier side at the conclusion of the first session at Lord's. At the break, Pope was still undefeated at 12, while Joe Root was 24 not out.

The England openers displayed bravery in the first hour while facing India's relentless pace attack, but the change of bowling after the drinks break helped the visitors. With his first over, Nitish pounced when Duckett fell for 23, feathering a catch to Pant after playing a loose stroke to a ball down the leg side, and then squaring Crawley up with a ball that moved away, which he edged to the wicketkeeper and was out for 18.

India only made one substitution for the game, replacing Prasidh Krishna with Bumrah. In an effort to regain the lead in the series, England brought back fast bowler Jofra Archer in place of Josh Tongue for his first Test appearance in over four years, after losing the second Test in Birmingham the previous week.

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