Following their decision to bat first in the third Test of the series at Lord's, the England batters, who were taken aback in Birmingham last week on their way to the team's 336-run defeat, displayed a cautious performance against the relentless Indian pace attack. Both were quite different from what has characterized the Bazball period up until this point. As a result, India captain Shubman Gill relentlessly sledged Joe Root and Ollie Pope with a sarcastic sledge during the second session of the first day of play on Thursday.

England had a run rate of 2.95 at one point during the afternoon session in London. This was only the second time throughout the Bazball period, during which they had previously played 72 innings, that their run rate in the first 40 overs of an innings was below three. The previous instance was also at the Lord's, back in 2022 against New Zealand, when they managed 112 for four in 40 overs, before successfully chasing 277 runs. India comes next with a run rate of 3.63, while England has a run rate of 4.6 for this period, which is the best.

England's run rate of 2.91 during the second session on Thursday was the second-lowest since that Test match against New Zealand, as the team scored just 70 runs in 24 overs.

While England's approach to the Indian attack was cautious, Gill showed no remorse to Root and Pope in a video broadcast by the broadcasters, saying, "No more entertaining cricket. Welcome to boring Test cricket, boys." In a dig at the home team, the 25-year-old supported his team after they delivered 28 straight dot balls.

The commentator continued, "Shubman is saying this because the run rate is 2.95, which suggests that Bazball went out the window."

In the first over of the day's opening session, earlier in the day, Nitish Kumar Reddy dismissed England's openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley in just four deliveries. But in order to prevent India from taking a third wicket, Root and Pope maintained their composure throughout the second session in London. As England reached 153 for two at Tea, the former England captain also scored a fifty, while Pope is still undefeated on 44. Root achieved his 67th half-century in Test cricket.

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