India player rating for 3rd England Test: Lone-warrior Jadeja & end of road for Karun Nair?

England leads the series 2-1, with 2 matches left to go and all three results still left.

India came tantalisingly close to a historic victory at Lord’s. For a second it looked like Ravindra Jadeja would take India home, but a solid defence from Mohammed Siraj saw England lose in the most spectacular manner. All three Test matches have gone down to the wire now and there hasn’t been much difference between the teams.

India’s player rating for 3rd Test: Batters

Yashasvi Jaiswal, 1/10: 13 runs (13 & 0)

Jaiswal’s first failure of the series. The first time he hasn’t scored at least one fifty-plus score against England in a Test match. He got a good ball in the first innings from Jofra Archer. But his second innings dismissal was so horrible that one can’t justify it. In the second over of the chase, with around an hour left before the end of play, he went for a poorly judged pull and departed for a duck. Prior to this, Jaiswal had never tried to hit aerial shots in the first few overs itself, and doing so in a must-win game makes it even worse.

KL Rahul, 10/10: 139 runs (100 & 39)

People have criticised Rahul for dismissing Pant via a run-out and then getting out after getting his hundred. But, it wasn’t entirely his fault for the run-out. Pant accepted the call and didn’t put in a dive either. He was India’s best batter of the match and looked peerless until he got out in both innings. It was he who took India forward in both innings while facing a brand-new ball. Without his effort, there was no way India would have scored over 300 in the first innings or maybe even crossed 100 in the second.

Karun Nair, 4/10: 54 runs (40 & 14)

Nair is the only Indian batter who has gotten a start each time but failed to even hit a fifty. He did the job to give Gill a late entry point but hasn’t pulled his weight on pitches where batters have scored runs. His second innings dismissal was perhaps the worst for any Indian batter in the series. It might be the end of the rope for him.

Shubman Gill, 2/10: 22 runs (16 & 6)

This was bound to happen. After scoring 585 runs in the first two matches, Gill was to fail. He looked good in the first innings, but England set him up rather brilliantly by bringing the wicketkeeper up. The second innings were rather shocking. Unlike the past trend of looking to get his eye in, Gill attacked almost every ball before finally getting pinned down by Brydon Carse. It wasn’t the dismissal that was bad but his overall approach.

Rishabh Pant, 10/10: 83 runs (74 & 9)

Despite being heavily hampered, Pant was India’s third-best batter. He couldn’t play his shots due to an injured left hand. Yet, he scored a fifty in the first innings. His run-out left a sour taste in the mouth but such things happen. It felt his hand was worse in the second dig, despite a look break and he perished for his first single-digit score in the series.

Dhruv Jurel, 10/10: 3 catches

India gave away 63 extras at Lord’s but the stats won’t show how well Jurel kept. It was he coming up to the stumps that brought the wicket of Harry Brook. He dropped a catch, but it turned out that was off a no-ball anyway. The byes came down the leg, with Siraj and Bumrah straying down. Jurel did a better job than Pant without a doubt and earns praise for his glove work.

India’s player rating for 2nd Test: All-rounders

Ravindra Jadeja, 10/10: runs 133 runs (72 & 61*), 1 wicket

Four consecutive fifties for Jadeja in England. And without a shadow of a doubt, he was India’s best batter. He helped take India to parity in the first innings and then played one of the best knocks by an Indian in a chase, albeit in a losing cause. For a moment, it looked like he’d win the game for India despite them being 82/7 chasing 193. But luck wasn’t on his side.

Nitish Kumar Reddy, 9/10: 43 runs (30 & 13), 3 wickets

A proper all-rounder performance from Nitish Reddy. He got three wickets and that too of openers. To take top-order wickets is a must and Nitish did that. He was solid with the bat both times. Had great partnerships with Jadeja both times and kept India in the game when they were behind.

Washington Sundar, 8/10: 23 runs (23 & 0), 4 wickets

No one expected Washington to one-up Jadeja in the third innings. But he did. The wickets of Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, and Shoaib Bashir were the reason why India restricted England to 192. His batting was good in the first innings. He could have scored more runs but then coming at number 8, how many runs can someone expect from him?

India’s player rating for 2nd Test: Fast bowlers

Jasprit Bumrah, 10/10: 7 wickets (74/5 & 38/2)

The series’ best bowling spell came from Bumrah in the second innings with the new ball but he didn’t get a wicket. After taking a 5-wicket haul in the first innings, he got only 2 in the second. Despite taking the most wickets for any bowler in the match, people wanted more. That’s Bumrah standard. So, he showed some resistance with the bat after scoring three consecutive ducks in the series.

Mohammed Siraj, 9/10: 4 wickets (85/2 & 31/2)

Siraj had three dropped catches of his bowling in the first innings. The umpire’s call didn’t go his way either. Just like Bumrah, he might have had a 5-wicket haul. But luck wasn’t on his side. He got the wickets of half-centuries Carse and Smith in the first innings, England’s best batters after Root. In the second innings, he got two of the three top-order wickets. His intensity never dipped once and the pressure remained on England whenever he bowled. He even stuck around for long with the bat, but it just wasn’t to be.

Akash Deep, 2/10: 1 wicket (92/0 & 30/1)

A forgettable match for Akash Deep. He was only able to do 10% of what he did at Edgbaston. Akash couldn’t give control or strike. He was India’s most expensive bowler at Lord’s. The wicket of Brook was the only good part.