Lord's Test: The great expectations of Gill

The spring in the step of Indian squad at Lord’s, ahead of the crucial third Test beginning on Thursday, 10 July, is hard to miss. It’s a far cry from the scenario a little over a week back, when the team management looked a confused lot — trying to grapple with the reality of playing an overseas Test without Jasprit Bumrah, as well as uncertain of the composition of the playing XI.

Then came Shubman Gill, and the young captain, in the words of some of the TV pundits, batted like god. Notwithstanding the team effort which helped them make the series 1-1 — especially the way Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj bent their backs for their six-fours in either innings — Edgbaston will be remembered in cricket literature as ‘Gill’s Test’ and the onus will be now on a much confident visiting captain to keep the good work going.

The ICC Players’ Rankings, out on Wednesday, 9 July, showed that Gill had rocketed 15 places to a career-best sixth place among Test batters — a result of his knocks of 269 and 161, which made him only the second in history to register scores of above 150 in both innings of a Test match and the second highest aggregate in Tests with 430 runs. Gill’s previous best ranking was 14th, which he reached in September last year, while he had started this series at No. 23.

Shubman Gill, the sardar of Edgbaston

From the hosts’ perspective, middle-order batter Harry Brook is slowly but surely laying claim to becoming the perfect successor to Joe Root. Brook’s solid 158 in the first innings of the second Test helped him reach 886 rating points, 18 more than his fellow Yorkshire hero Root, swapping places with him again and ending the former captain’s six-month reign at the top. Brook had earlier been No. 1 for one week last December.

It's an exalted standard that Gill has set for himself in this series — witnessed only in the likes of a Sunil Gavaskar during his 1971 debut tour of the West Indies — but his newfound resolve and defence will again face a stiff test at Lord’s, which will see the addition of Jofra Archer in the rival attack and enough life on the pitch. Both factors were conspicuously missing in the first two Tests.

THE LORD'S IS READY FOR THE ENGLAND VS INDIA TEST. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/s6bSJjb2nL

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) July 8, 2025

While the Indian top order has held up firmly under somewhat benign conditions at both Leeds and Edgbaston, India has a spot to worry over — the crucial No. 3 position, the seat of first Rahul Dravid and then Cheteshwar Pujara over most of the last two decades.

Neither newcomer Sai Sudarshan nor comeback man Karun Nair has been able to consolidate his place there in the one Test each so far — though the latter had looked in control in both innings in the second Test... till he was taken out.

There is considerable speculation on whether Nair, a peer of K.L. Rahul in Karnataka, will be eventually dropped to make way for Sudarshan — though that will be unfair. He has batted in two different positions in two matches and has really done the hard yards over the past eight years to get one more chance. Now, it remains to be seen whether coach Gautam Gambhir walks the talk of giving his players a long rope before dumping them.

Over then, to the home of cricket…

Catch the match

England vs India

Second Test, Lord’s

Start: 3:30 p.m. IST, 10 July