It’s all square at The Oval! Who’s going to make strides towards a series lead? Joe Root‘s England or Virat Kohli‘s India? Follow it all on our live blog. For ball-by-ball commentary, click here. For our coverage in Hindi, click here.
The momentum is back with England at the lunch break – join @VVSLaxman281 and @Ian_Bell for their thoughts on #MatchDay: https://t.co/RBt1YuVdNw pic.twitter.com/cAgDWpUyce
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) September 3, 2021
12.35pm: England flying
Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow are embracing the Shane Warne doctrine of Test batting: tee off (not recklessly). India’s change bowlers have been far too straight to them and they have scored with rare freedom, with 64 runs coming in a 10-over period. Pope looks in particularly good touch, creaming a straight drive back down the ground for four, and Bairstow has timed the ball brilliantly, capitalising whenever India have overpitched. A vital partnership in the context of the game.
12.15pm: Umesh on a roll
Check out that picture of Umesh Yadav taking flight, mouth open, zealous eyes, punching the air with a clenched right fist on Thursday evening immediately after bending back Joe Root’s off stump, writes Nagraj Gollapudi. It is a brilliant picture: energetic, emotional, ecstatic. Importantly, it also captures the physicality of Yadav, easily the strongest hulk in the Indian dressing room. You would not want to face him with boxing gloves.
Yadav is 33 but he has worked tirelessly to keep himself fit. And that is one key reason Yadav can walk out of hibernation – he last played a Test match in the last week of 2020 in Australia – and deliver compelling spells of fast bowling as he did last evening and this morning, where he combined with Jasprit Bumrah to suffocate and enervate England’s top order by applying constant pressure.
Despite playing his first Test of the series, Yadav has done everything that Bumrah has done and done it with discipline. Until the first hour of this morning both have delivered 11 overs and of the 66 balls, both Yadav and Bumrah have pitched on the stumps and the channel. While Bumrah has been the pivot the best bowler for India this series, Yadav has slipped into the saddle without breaking any sweat.
Umesh Yadav is on a roll, birthday boy Malan edges to the slips where Rohit holds onhttps://t.co/UpTMH8QwQ0 | #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/olDebQDrT2
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) September 3, 2021
11.10am: White smoke
Ollie Pope is in early, with nightwatchman Craig Overton slashing a cut to Kohli at first slip. Pope has made an obvious adjustment to his game since his last Test against New Zealand earlier this summer: he took an off-stump guard during that series but is further across towards the leg side today, with his pads in front of leg stump and his bat in line with middle.
Pope’s record in first-class cricket at The Oval is frankly absurd – he averages a shade above 100 for Surrey here – but this is not a typical pitch for the ground – it’s slower than usual, and there is more grass on it than you would generally expect. Pope has flattered to deceive in the last 18 months of his Test career and will be desperate to cash in on his home ground.
10.30am: Bairstow gets the gloves back
Jonny Bairstow took the gloves for England yesterday – Jos Buttler is missing on paternity leave – and has a big job on his hands with the bat today. He’s been speaking to Sky Sports this morning.
“It takes a bit of adapting to,” he said. “To get out there and have the gloves back on was great fun. There was a bit more bounce which causes different challenges.
“In an ideal world, yes, you’d be doing it [keeping wicket] consistently all year round but as we know, sometimes that doesn’t suffice. Those basics that you go back to are the key and staying relaxed – as soon as you tense up with your upper body, that’s when you get into difficult circumstances. It wobbled and it swung after the bat. It’s a case of staying relaxed and relishing the challenge of a wobbling ball. There’s not many nicks that do swing – normally it scrambles when you nick it – but these have gone on the axis and have swung.
“It’s a great chance – a day where we can hopefully bat through the morning session and then kick on after lunch. It is slightly different to a traditional Oval wicket. We need to get through that first hour and then it’s a case of applying ourselves and going on.”