Root, Pope grind it out after early wickets

England's decision to bat first in the third Test against India at Lord's proved to be a testing affair for the batters. The decision to bat was uncommon for England at home in recent times, but on a green top that had received a bit of trimming on the first morning, England had shown an intention to change up their plans from the previous two Tests of the series.

Joe Root and Ollie Pope fought their way through the tough phase to remain unbeaten over one and a half sessions. They stitched together a useful partnership worth 109 in 210 balls, which helped England recover after losing a couple of early wickets.

The partnership was built on a slow pace, with the run-rate of 2.91 being England's second-slowest at home in the Bazball era over a full season. Root went on to register his 103rd score of fifty or more with Pope also nearing the milestone by the stroke of Tea.

England's pace in scoring was down as a result, with boundaries not coming by as frequently as they have normalised in the Bazball era. The false shot percentage in the first 15 overs was 38.4% – the highest for the first 15 overs of any Test innings in England since 2006.

Brief Scores: England 153/2 (Joe Root 54*, Ollie Pope 44*; Nitish Reddy 2-35) vs India