Joe Root and Ollie Pope steady England after openers fall in same over
Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were dismissed in the space of four balls.
England safely negotiated the return of Jasprit Bumrah as they battled to 153 for two at tea on day one of the third Rothesay Test at Lord’s.
Ben Stokes kicked the habit of bowling first following last week’s heavy defeat at Edgbaston, winning the toss and putting his top order in against an attack led once again by the returning master Bumrah.
The world’s number one bowler was unable to land a blow as he sent down 13 wicketless overs for 21, but his unheralded team-mate Nitish Kumar Reddy dismissed openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley in the space of four balls to leave England on the rack.
But an unbroken stand of 109 between Joe Root (54no) and Ollie Pope (44no), who batted throughout the afternoon sessions, put the hosts back on safer ground.
The pair shelved the fireworks that have defined their team over the past three years, playing more methodically on a slow pitch.
England began with a stand of 43, gradually settling after a tricky start.
Duckett nicked his first ball from Bumrah just short of the wicketkeeper and was fortunate to escape a couple of wild drives early on. One skimmed past his outside edge and the next burrowed through a yawning gap between bat and pad without clipping the stumps.
Crawley was more cautious initially but did not stay quiet for long, bursting into life with four boundaries in the space of eight deliveries as he used his feet upset Akash Deep’s length.
Navigating the new ball was a victory for England, but trouble was about to come from an unexpected source.
Reddy, an unassuming medium-pacer with just five wickets in his first six Tests, burst things open with the worst ball of the morning. Duckett somehow got himself in a tangle against a leg-side draw down, brushing a glove through to Rishabh Pant for 18.
Pope was close to following for a golden duck, prodding his first ball low to Shubman Gill at gully, where a diving one-hander went to ground.
He got off strike with a thick edge, putting Crawley in the dock to face a snorter from Reddy.
He may have got lucky with the Duckett dismissal, but earned his second, swinging it in towards the off stump and climbing sharply off a length to get the nick.
England’s foundations had been eroded swiftly by the all-rounder and it almost got even worse.
Pope’s shaky start continued as he edged his third consecutive delivery, this time from Mohammed Siraj, but saw the ball land a few inches short of second slip.
Root calmed things down as he set a steadier tone, Pope gradually falling into line.
At one stage after lunch there were 28 dot balls in a row, but the pair did not chase things.
India, who needed to call on Dhruv Jurel as substitute keeper after Pant injured a finger, became frustrated as the Dukes ball went soft and eventually persuaded the umpires to change it.
But Root and Pope were up to the task now, the former easing to 50 off 102 balls and Pope getting a couple of boundaries away just before tea to pick up his pedestrian rate.