Wow, that was *fantastic*! Edge of the seat stuff all day, particularly from 2pm onwards.
One of the great Lord’s Test matches, and one of the finest of all Indian victories. Fully merited and deserved, and they were quite magical.
England pulverised on the final day by a brilliant team. Some positives to take from the game — the performances of Root, Bairstow, Buttler, Moeen, Wood, and Anderson — but greatly outweighed by the collective negatives, particularly Root’s disastrous captaincy, and the atrocious top order which is making Test matches simply unwinnable: that’s two draws and five losses in the last seven Test matches now, and no win since the beginning of February.
Many England fans were highly realistic about the balance of quality ahead of the series, and they predicted that India would win 2-1 or 3-1 (I went for 3-1 to India) — this is looking well on track, as I do think England will win one of the matches either to keep things interesting or as a consolation at least. Possibly at the Oval.
But it is patently obvious that even with England making changes then India have the better side here: better bowlers, better batters, better togetherness, better captaincy, better tactics, deeper team spirit, more experience, and the list goes on.
A particularly heavy defeat (the 1-3, a 0-3, or even a 0-4) would leave Joe Root under serious pressure to resign his captaincy.
Congratulations to India on the Test match win!