17th July 2014, New Delhi: It didn’t surprise me when I saw a green grass cover at the Lord’s where India and England are once again battling to take the initial lead in the five match test series. The home team realized that if they want to dominate in this series then they have to take the risk of providing a green top wicket to the Indian batsmen, who typically aren’t very comfortable in playing in such conditions. However, I believe, seeing the pitch at Lord’s, Indian skipper MS Dhoni would have got a smile on his face too as this time he has the potent pace battery which can turn the tables for him. We all saw how Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami dominated in the first Test at Nottingham and they would be eagerly waiting for their turn to bowl on this wicket.
England were lucky enough to have won the crucial toss here as any team would hesitate to bat first on such pitch. The morning session has been tough on the Indian batsmen, who have been continuously tested to some fine swing bowling from the English bowlers. With both the Indian openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay back in the pavilion, Indian middle order should look to spend as much time on the wicket and not look for scoring runs quickly as few more wickets in this session can land India on the back-foot.
