India broke England’s pride so badly in Birmingham that by the time they reached Lord’s, Bazball had turned into Blockball. Yes, that’s not a typo. The same England that once screamed “strike rate above all” is now batting like it’s 1999.
Where is Bazball?
The hosts crawled their way to 251 runs across the entire Day 1, with their hundred coming up only in the 35.4th over.
And that was England’s second-slowest century in any innings during the Bazball era.
But here’s the plot twist — the slowest one also came against India, during the Rajkot Test last year, where they took 37.2 overs to get there.
England vice-captain Ollie Pope even admitted that India bowled so well, they had no choice but to abandon their Bazball approach.
"Not necessarily the way we're used to kind of going about putting together a first innings, but I think 250 for 4 is a pretty, pretty good score, I think at the minute. Obviously would have liked some more runs, but I think the nature of the surface and the way the Indian attack bowled as well was pretty good throughout," said Pope after Day 1.
Asia Cup in Jeopardy
Now let’s shift gears to the Asia Cup, because the off-field drama is no less than a political thriller. Dark clouds continue to hover over the tournament, with reports saying India and Sri Lanka have decided to skip the July 24 Asian Cricket Council meeting in Dhaka, owing to political unrest. What happens next remains to be seen, but this decision has cast further doubt over whether the Asia Cup will go ahead as planned.
Pakistan Team in India?
Meanwhile, even though cricketing ties with Pakistan remain on ice, their hockey team is expected to travel to India later this year for the Asia Cup and Junior World Cup.
But there’s a catch. A top Pakistani government official has said they will only send their players if they are fully satisfied with the security situation in India.
The Tragedy that Shook Gurugram
And finally, the tragedy that left Gurugram shaken — the shocking murder of rising tennis star Radhika Yadav. She was allegedly shot dead by her father during a heated argument over her decision to run a tennis academy.
Radhika had recently reached her career-best ITF women’s doubles ranking of 113 — a big milestone for such a young athlete. She was climbing fast and then, just like that, silence. Just imagine what Radhika could have gone on to achieve. But now, we’ll never know.
