England openers were back in the pavilion within a gap of four balls
Jasprit Bumrah tried but Rishabh Pant dropped a close one. Mohammed Siraj got a couple of balls to move away, but didn’t get close. Akash Deep got the ball to spit off the surface, but didn’t open the account. However, it was young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy that struck gold for India in the third Test against England.
Bowling up the hill, Reddy managed to tempt opener Ben Duckett to play a strong pull down the legside which took a feather off his glove which Pant dived to complete an excellent catch.
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The very next ball, captain Shubman Gill dived at full stretch to his right at gully as Zak Crawley chopped it, but failed to get his fingers under it.
Reddy was not disheartened as he pulled out a magical delivery which swung into Crawley and then straightened on the bounce, taking a good edge to Pant.
In a matter of four balls, Reddy had two wickets to his name after some great work by the other frontline pacers.
In the very next over, Siraj came close to getting the wicket of Ollie Pope who got a thick edge off a delivery moving away from him, but the ball fell just an inch short of KL Rahul at second slip.
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England were fortunate in the first hour of Day 1 as they managed to nick a few deliveries but survived thanks to the visitors trying to figure out their fielding positions up the slope.
Despite facing dangerous deliveries, Joe Root and Pope managed to get through their initial overs to take England past 50.
India made just one change from their series-leveling victory in Birmingham as they brought in pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for Prasidh Krishna. They kept Washington Sundar as the second spinner in the side as the southpaw also provides depth to the batting order.
There was no place for left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav. England, meanwhile, welcomed Jofra Archer into the Test playing XI after four long years during which he suffered multiple injuries along his bowling arm and was rested for the second Test despite being named in the squad.