Rishabh Pant, the vice captain of India, stated that the tourists are not concerned about England changing their preparations for the surface in the third Test, which begins on Thursday, July 10 at the storied Lord’s Cricket Ground. According to sources, England may decide to use a seamer-friendly surface at Lord’s following the humiliating 336-run loss at Edgbaston.
The ‘Bazball’ era has seen England, led by captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, want to play home Test matches on flat batting surfaces. However, India has performed admirably when batting on the flat surfaces available at Headingley and in the second Test, as evidenced by the visitors’ over 1000-run total in both innings at Edgbaston.
According to Pant, who struck two hundreds in the first Test match at Headingley, India will concentrate on their own game plans and not give England’s game too much thought. According to the first images of the Lord’s pitch, the curators have left a respectable amount of grass.
“See, as a team, generally, what we plan is to play according to the conditions given to us. We don’t want to think about what the opposition is thinking…whether they are changing their plans or not. Whatever they’re doing, we’ll do our best and do better from there. Simple,” said Pant in the pre-match press conference.
Rishabh Pant stated that the Indian squad will do their utmost to take 20 wickets for the second game in a row. The wicketkeeper-batter stated that the players are shown promise in the absence of veterans like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who declared their retirements from the red-ball format in May, and that this is a chance for the team’s younger players to show off their abilities.
“The discussion was that England will give us better wickets because the kind of cricket that they play. So for us, the mantra was to get 20 wickets on these batting-friendly wickets. That was already planned. Eventually, our batters have to step up because we don’t have two of our senior players too. Like I said, it’s an opportunity to step up and people are slowly doing that. Eventually, we might do even better as a team.”
Rishabh Pant
“Jasprit Bumrah Is Just Amazing” – Rishabh Pant Praises Pacer Ahead of Lord’s Test
Jasprit Bumrah took five wickets in the first Test before being rested in the second. For the third Test match at Lord’s, the talismanic seamer is expected to rejoin the team. Pant gave the seasoned pacer high marks and described how hard it is to hold onto wickets when bowling.
“I think everything. I think how accurate he is, the way his mind works…I think he’s just amazing, man. I think it’s more difficult for the wicketkeeper behind the wicket than for the batsman, especially in England.”
